A Series of Unfortunate Events

Nah, not the movie Emily Browning and Liam Aiken starred in. This one is real.

The past two days have been quite eventful ones-in a negative way. I have been ditimpa (evaded) with some less than joyful events. But I wouldn't say they were terrible for me. Some of them were like adventures for me. What's life without challenges? dife?

Before I relate the stories, let me count the number; 1....2....3....4...5...6. Alright, six events-miserable yet challenging events.

Yesterday,

1 My pants got pulled down. To the knees. Epic joke of the year done on me so far. Actually, I pulled someone's pants down earlier but not THAT low. So I don't blame the fella for taking revenge on me, in a friendly way. It really was funny. We're even now dude. Fortunately, school had ended and only the boys saw and some other not so lucky ones. Hey, it's embarassing! I'm using all the guts I have to post this up. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I want to prove that it really was a series of unfortunate events.

2 My shoe was thrown into a dustbin. I still haven't got into finding the -** that did that. But I don't mind. Still, it caused me a slight inconvenience especially because it happened like 5 minutes after the pants thing. By the way, if you're wondering why in the first place my shoes aren't on my feet, it is because I'm not allowed to wear shoes into class because my class is the COMPUTER LAB. I did mentioned this in one of the earlier posts. Anyway, when I found out one of my shoes was missing I searched the shoe rack, the drain and in the class.I even dreaded that it would be on the roof. Then a student came along to ask me a question-where is the monitor. I said the monitor left. Funny how the person didn't notice my lopsided posture because my shoe was on while my other foot was wearing only socks. Anyway, I noticed a dustbin nearby and I knew the plot. I won't mention the manner my left shoe was rescued but I will tell you that my shoe smelt okay-it smelt of whitener-after that episode. Yep, I stuck my nose upside down to catch a waft of its odour.

3 I was locked out of my own house. Crazy? Ya tink? Scout meeting was over early so I walked home only to be forced to climb into my house like a thief. Making matters worse, the doorbell didn't work. Anyhow, my mom wasn't in. The car wasn't inside.I actually would have happily waited outside of my house for my mom to come back.? But I figured that if my mom was out then most probably she was at school waiting to pick me up. I was too late to inform her before she left. So if I don't inform her I was home, she'll end up waiting for an hour and finally getting pissed and the circumstances will become devastating. There are two ways to inform her-telecommunication or I walk back to school. I considered the former which was the fastest way. Telephone! House telephone? How am I gonna reach the house phone when the house is locked?Windows! SNap, a plan. I have a cordless phone (thank God for cordless phones!) in the house that I might be able to reach from the window. All my windows at home are netted so all I have to do is undo the netting so that I can reach in. And it just so happened that the netting to this particular window was done from the outside instead of inside. Remember, God is good, and he always will make a way. In the end I succeeded without tearing my pants and called my mom. Wow.

4 I - into - - - - into - --. Sorry, but it was a terrible experience.

But at least yesterday there was a smile. Haha.

Today

5 I went to sukan only to find out that I was cancelled from my running event. Great. I was already slightly late so I had to sit in a bus filled with emerald (I'm in Ruby house) marching members, PBSM and prefects. But it was pretty fun cause there a few friends there. Reached the stadium and found out I didn't have a number. Which means I am kind of like a useless reserve. But it wasn't so bad. I just hanged around with my friends instead and even managed to take a visit to the Paroi swimming pool which was a 3 minutes walk away from the Paroi Athlete Stadium to see two friends who were in a swimming competition. Nevertheless, the sports day was awesome. I saw many fast runners. Imagine a runner as tall as me beat a runner a head taller! J-super fast!

6 I think I miscounted. Or, I forgot. Erm...sorry can't remember. But the main stuff are above. That's my series of unfortunate events this year. Do you have yours? Please share.

Honestly, I liked the change that came with these so called unfortunate events. Like I said, it was quite like an adventure.

The Power of Perseverance

Last week, my school organized the annual Merentas Desa (Long distance Running) competition. This year, I was really determined to finish below the 30^th placing. The participants who finish below the 30^th placing will receive medals. First 15 to finish have the chance to join the athlete team. I did not want to get into the athlete team. I just wanted to set a goal for myself because I knew I could do it.

Okay, enough explaining. At 7.15 am they gave us the usual briefings. Then everyone goes down to the field and the tension starts. Well, at least for most of us. Then it’s the moment where everyone waits for the principal to blow the horn. Most of us have finished warming by this time. Beep, the crazy horn goes. You think everyone starts jogging but instead all hell breaks loose and suddenly all you see are people sprinting. It has been like that ever since I joined the event. Well, eventually those will stop from exhaustion and it turned out they were only trying to heat up the atmosphere. Then the serious joggers will catch up. Soon, it’s like a marathon.

Well, from the start I was ready for that crazy sprinting spree so when the horn went I started jogging and tried my best to avoid getting bumped. Unfortunately, some get very tensed when they see everyone sprinting so they start to sprint too and the run out of breath.

The track consisted of straight and curvy roads. There were two or three steep hills and lots of downhill paths too. Throughout the course, you could see different kinds of strategies. Some jog all the way and sprint towards the end (I believe this is the most common because it really is good). Some will jog, walk, sprint, jog walk sprint… Yet some fellows will sprint and then walk and then sprint again. These are the ones who are tired but don’t want to get left behind. Yet there are some who just jog all the way or walk all the way. Honestly, I was really confused that several groups walk like they are in a shopping mall. A few people may brisk walk.

About 2 km away from the finish line, I was running out of energy. My toes hurt (because my shoe was getting too small for me), I was short of breath and my muscles ache. I had two options- to walk and rest for a while and let people past me or keep on going and give my all out. But I had pretty much made up my mind. I had to endure. I would LOVE to stop but I knew that if I did I would regret it my whole life. Plus, I actually managed to bluff myself that if I finished below 30 I could have all the burgers and soft drinks I wanted. And I just manage to get no. 26 before nearly falling down out of exhaustion after the finish line. I could not even walk straight. I just drowned myself with some icy orange juice.

Okay, the power of perseverance. Absolutely great it is. I manage to get 26^th because I practiced, prayed, wore quality shoes, ate a lot yesterday and got tips from friends. But endurance and mental strength played a major part. No wonder, the sport sections say a lot about mental stuff.

No time, gotta go.

The Malaysian Football/Soccer Team

I've been wanting to blog about them ever since I saw them beat Vietnam 2-0. Awesome win right?

By now, the Malaysian team has already won their first AFF Suzuki Cup, beating Indonesia 4-2 on aggregate. Congratulation! I'm very happy for them, because a few years back they were pretty down. As a Malaysian, I had course had this hope to see my country's football team playing and winning international tournaments. And there was this ultimate hope of seeing them as world cup champions. = )

I have always wanted to see this team make Malaysia proud at a international level; and they have done it. So, this post is dedicated to the football team for all the hard work you all have done, and for all the disappointments you guys went through before finally clinching victory. I can really see teamwork in the way they played in both of the final legs, and I know they tried really hard. But sometimes I feel the Malaysian Football team is a bit too generous. I mean they are not greedy enough to keep on going for goals and more goals and more goals to torture their opponents. Ha ha. I don't feel that's bad, but I certainly hope the slight decrease in aggressiveness isn't because of overconfidence.

I also want to say that I'm really sorry for Mr. Kunalan because he didn't manage to score a goal even though he tried so much. I saw him running up and down between the two ends of the fields. I'm not surprised he ran the distance of a marathon in that game. Anyway, he actually vowed to try to get a goal but I guess En. Safee Sali probably helped get a goal in his place. Another two persons to congratulate are Mr. K Rajagobal and En. Khairul Fahmi Che Mat. The chief coach of the Malaysian squad, Mr. Rajagobal really helped in building up the national team along with all the assistant coaches. The goalkeeper, En. Khairul, made plenty of saves that were vital for the Malaysian team's win. In fact, when En. Khairul was about to go for the Indonesian penalty around the 18th minute, Mr. Rajagobal told him to dive to the left. Sure enough, En. Khairul dived left and saved the shot from Indonesia's skipper Firman Utina. Amazing? You tell me.

Here are some photos:

I got interested in football by watching it on TV. So, if the Malaysian football Team plays well on TV, then they don't have to worry about more people getting interested in the game. So, by now I think we can be pretty sure we'll have plenty of talented football players in the future if the Malaysian Team keeps this up. Yea, maybe not all will be superstars, but there will be a few youths or children out there who are either have talent or train very hard and get into the one of the training squads like Harimau Muda.

So, keep up the good work, Malaysian footballers! Because in the eyes of many, you are actually role models to the young footballers. Not necessary footy fans, but all sport fans will be influenced and encouraged by you guys. And maybe in the near future, Malaysia might and just might be one of the world's football powerhouse. XD