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Excerpt:

The First Time You Smiled (at me)

Your first smile,
Made me feel like I had just sprinted for a mile,
Heart started pounding,
And sweat unconsciously streaming.

Whenever your image appears from my memory,
I would instantly forget everything that makes me weary,
Looking deep into your emeraldy eyes,
Always clear away any pictures of pretentious disguise.

Your radiance, energy and friendliness,
Had made me realize my life was once laced with stodginess,
I’ve since seen, through your eyes, another new life dimension,
& I’m slowly inching towards that direction.

If only I had the courage to take more initiative,
My feelings would now not be held captive,
If only I had the guts to at least try,
I would not be sitting here listening to my heart’s silent cry.

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Still reminiscing the old days haha. Maybe I haven't gotten over this since it's the 1st time I did something like this, or maybe you're just too, well, perfect.

I want you to know that I'll always be there, anytime, anywhere when you need me, coz you've been, and will always be, a wonderful friend.....

AOW (Another Ordinary Week)

Hmm.. Where should I begin?

I think I shall start with the news that I've FAILED my HI paper (again!) today, no thanks to my commitment (or lack thereof) to study at the last minute, LITERALLY! I had planned to study for the whole day on Sunday, but I ended up deliberating as usual and only started after dinner. Now, considering that I had 14 chapters & 6 mock papers to finish in less than 12 hrs, I decided to do only the latter, & I found out (yet again!) that it was definitely a little less than enough. Failed by 2 marks again this time, & still cursing my d*mned luck for changing the answers for 2 questions I had originally gotten (read: guessed) correctly! Arrrggghh!!!

I seriously think my boss's gonna shoot me tomorrow when I turn up to the office =(

I had to go for training for the whole of last week. Sure didn't think that there were so many crap we had to go through just to become a freakin' insurance agent! Oh yeah there's something I found pretty funny when I went to the office every morning. There were always buses with Great Eastern (a rival insurance company) ads passing through the Prudential HQ every morning! haha I wonder whether it's an attempt to get the potential/customers or the advisers to switch camps at the last minute. Who knows, it might even be a common industry practice in the insurance field here! Where better to recruit than in the barracks of your enemy right? =)

Now the training. 1st few days were really miserable because the trainer was really crappy and I always fell asleep after lunch. On the 2nd day, CEO came in & tried to 'sell' Prudential philosophies to us, but I guess he wasn't much of a motivator; I've definitely seen better ones. I wasn't really listening coz I'm just doing this job out of boredom anyway. He was saying that this training was to pick out those motivated ones from the bunch and kick out the rest, & I guess I fall in the latter category =) Still, I don't think he's gonna kick my butt anytime soon coz I've already got quite a few deals lined up. The challenge will be to come up with some more after that =)

I lost the match again when I partnered Siew on Sat, VS Singapore youth team players. I have to say I was really impressed with 2 of them, coz they were at least on the same level as Siew, or possibly even better. They had superb defense and also had many tricks up their sleeves. I guess it showed how good they were coz even Siew was tricked sometimes, let alone someone of my standard. It was a close match (19-21, old scoring system) & I think my mistakes at the net were the main reason for the loss. Somehow I just wasn't able to finish them off when I had the chances right in front of me, & playing at that level means you will be punished for every mistake committed.

Record stands at 2 wins - 2 losses now. Guess I still have a lot learn before I can play at their level.

& finally, my PR is out! I'm gonna collect the documents tomorrow & get started on the travel preparation I had been planning for some time! More updates on that when I get everything finalised! I'm getting excited already just thinking abt it! Yay!

SORRY.....

to all the peeps who sent me smses from Oz & other countries during the past 2 weeks. I didn't rcv them & only realized it when a friend informed me through email. Think Starhub network has been erratic for the past 2 weeks or so & I can't even get signal sometimes in the house!

Anws, if u've sent me me smses & I didn't reply, it's bcause I didn't get 'em in my mailbox at all! In case u didn't know, this is my email add: leonhart20@gmail.com ---> please send all 'correspondence' here till I rcv further info from Starhub!

.... & so it ends....

Arrrggghhh!!

finally lost our 2 matches winning streak against Timothy, though it was a pretty good match played mostly on the technical side. I wasn't even tired at the end of it all because there wasn't much running during the match. Most points were played in 5 strokes max, & every1 showcased whatever tricks they had to catch the opposition off guard. Lost 16-21 at the end, but it definitely wasn't a bad result given that Timothy (the ex-national player) provided the opposition.

Anws, whoever said that being an insurance guy is easy had gotten it wrong totally! I just came back from the 1st (out of 5 days) training session & & I'm as dead as the fridge right now! There are so MANY things to learn that it's not funny =( I think I'm having 2nd thoughts now haha. Can't do anything about it though coz I'll still have to endure the rest of it to qualify... & then I'll be off travelling to many places! (think positive, hendry!! It'll be over before you even know it. The sufferings, that is, not the travels!)

Got to go back to snooze land now. Early day tmr morning coz apparently the Prudential boss is coming to the lecture (seriously, WHO CARES??). We are made to wear ties & suits just to make him feel 'welcome'. Well whatever really. I don't really need this job anyway, so i'm just gonna try my luck & 'be different' =)

Obstacle...

Just hang on a tad longer, hendry...

you know this is just the start, & there will always be obstacles blocking the path to glory...

Take it slow, & make baby steps to inch forward if necessary, but make sure progress is achieved in every of those steps..

Time will come when everything becomes clearer, & the light will shine on the path again

WiShLiSt

1) O2 Atom Exec ---> the ultimate PDA phone, with the coolest features!

2) PSPX --->one of the 2 travel accessories to keep me occupied during the long travel hours ahead (I've got the other 1 already: Ipod Video 30gb)

3) a 6 megapixel digicam ---> not decided on the model yet

4) camcorder ---> also not decided on the model yet

total cost: est. SGD 3000

hmm... gonna save up & try to buy all these before I start my travelling..

"Ni Xing De!'

The same phrase worked its magic on me, again, 'Ni Xing De!' (translation: you can do it!)

Today I partnered Ah Siew again to play against J & T, two pretty good players in the club. On paper, three of us would be roughly the same standard, with Ah Siew the only standout, so I was expecting us to win around 21-15.

Of course, badminton matches aren't played on paper, so what matters most is the performance on court. Ah Siew told me that he wasn't feeling that well because of lack of sleep, so we must really play well to beat the opponent this time.

Fast forward to the ending. We were surprisingly down 15-20, mainly because I was trying to hard to hit winners at the front, and ended up squandering about 10 pts. Ah Siew then told me to just move them around the court, & don't worry abt finishing them off. My momentum started gathering pace at this time, and with me pushing forward in the net play whenever there was any chances, we drew level at 20-all.

Deuce. 3 more points to be played. Ah Siew was running around busily at the back, because I made mistakes sometimes when I tried to be too aggressive at the front court, and ended up getting counter-attacked. We won the next 2 pts in a row, & with 1 more pt to go, Ah Siew mis-hit a shot and handed the serve back.

We lost the next 2 pts, & they were still on their 1st serve. Ah Siew hit a cross-court smash in the high serve, and it went down perfectly on the sideline, leaving the opponent with no chance. 2nd serve was to me, & before I took it, he looked at me & said that magic phrase again, ' Ni Xing De!'

I smashed right through the centre line, and won the serve back. We won the next pt when Ah Siew set up another smash for me, which I hit down the centre again on his instructions.

Our current record stands at 2-0, & hopefully our winning streak will continue.

More importantly, I learned from him that we are not to give up at any time, & to trust the partner we pick, because that will determine his/her perfomance.

There was a phrase in the Slam Dunk comic series that I particularly liked, which corresponds to Ah Siew's mentality: 'If we give up, does that mean the match is going to end now?' Well, the answer is NO. The opponent will be riding on their superiority, and instead of getting demoralised, we should attempt to play better because they won't be lenient on us even if we surrender at this instant moment. Go for it like there's no tomorrow, & you'll be rewarded for the effort.