Arafura Games 2005

I'm Back! Yup that's like a quite long ago.... =p
Paiseh lah.... Been busy getting stuffs done, spending time with my loves one and trying to get back to normal life again. (ok and of course abit lazy! hee~)


Well, it seems like i'm not very use to my normal life again after a two weeks break, hahaha.... i mean sometimes u enjoy yr holiday so much that you dont even wanna start work again... =p
Just love being carefree and dont bother about money issues... =)


Ok let my recap what's going on for my 12 days trip to Darwin, Australia.


Day 1 and 2


Parted with family and dear @ airport, saw how reluctant dear was when she's letting go my hand, she nearly teared though, oh well i reminded her that she's not suppose to tear easily, anyway her dear dear is gonna do his country proud!!! hahahah =)


Took Qantas plane, the taking off wasnt that smooth, abit afraid that something might happen, CHOI!!! but luckily nothing happen in the end, heng ah!! Finally reach Darwin airport ard 2 plus in the morning. ( australia time about 3 plus going 4, the time difference is abt 1 1/2 hr ). In the airport, there were airport staffs patroling with their trained dogs, the dogs will sniff us and our luggage for suspected meat or drugs!??! yup, the dogs pretty well train cos they never stick out their tongue and lick u, they just use their nose to sniff around. Custom check kinda long cos the australian quite particular about bringing poultry food in or issit any kinda food in!?!? Well finally done with everything and took a group bus to the hotel which were then 5 plus 6 (australian time). I was feeling tired and sleepy and the worse part is we cant check in till like 2pm in the afternoon. It was pure torture waiting ard and cant rest because there simply no place for us to sleep! I was feeling totally exhaust by like 7 plus 8 in the morning. The week before i fly i didnt get to rest well, sleeping like 4-5 hr everyday and did have a trainning session on my own before i go to the airport and then i didnt even get to sleep because of that night flight and that stupid check in time!. gosh! it feels terrible. I nearly collapse when i was walking ard the supermart buying food.
Yup that's how tired i was! After lunch, checking in, spend the rest of the day sleeping in my bed. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...........
Woke up and had dinner which was prepared by my team mates. Yummy, after that went back to bed again! hahahaha.... i was literally a pig on that day. =p Eat and sleep.
Cant blame me, i was too tired to do anything and need to recuperate before my competition starts!


Day 3


It was the opening ceremony for the Arafura games, not too bad, quite grand, the crowds are great, the atmosphere was good, i feel pump up for the games! yeah!!! =)


Day 4, 5, 6


Spend the rest of those days, go to beach and pool to familiarise the competition place. Meet my competitors, made new friends, their hospitality was great. Did some walking ard the area of our residential. Have fun making breakfast, lunch (if got time), dinner at the hostel there (anyway its a backpackers inn, place). Did have some fun there however the bed sucks! cos it remind me of my army, navy life. However some are the beds are worse than the one i get in my NS life, cos some of those bed were badly out of shape. (sunken bed, can even feel the spring when we lie on the bed) One thing is good at that place is that there is a pool! a very small scale swimming pool, but is good enough for me though! i love water cos i'm a water creature! =)


Day 7


Competition day! It the start of a three day competition, beach competition was first. Didnt reallie do well, anyway beach events are not my cup of tea, anyway my fellow team mates didnt fare to well either, we will like kinda badly trash!?!?!? yup ... that;s the cruel fact though.... well we were determine to make something happen the next day at the pool, in fact i was Determined to make an impression in the pool competition the next day! However i was so shackled by the events i took part in beach. For the first time i feel like my arms are cramping! gosh it never happen to me before. I know i'm in bad shape now, never did i feel so tired before, i need to get rid of those lactic acid in my body. After returning from the competition, i went straight to the hotel pool to warm down. Yup, trying my best to warm down properly so that i can burn off as much lactic acid as possible and trying to loosen up the muscle so as to be more fresh the next day. I was determine to do well and claim a stand for tml competition.


Day 8


Pool competition in the morning! Beach competition again in the evening. Woke up and determine to do my best at the pool. Prepared and ready to go then. Did a personal best (PB)for the first event, miss out the bronze medal by 0.3s, that sucks! Though i did a PB, i know i can do a better time than i clock. Oh well if only we had pool competition as the start of the three day competition. I was feeling not too good before the pool races.
The next event is comin up, i feel like giving up because i was kinda tired and anyway it wasnt the event that i like to swim. However surprisingly during the swim, i found myself leading the pack, and i decided to use a little bit strength instead of slacking and for the last 50m i find myself in medal contention. This shock me and i decided to start to speed up and when i saw my teammates jumping up and down asking me to go faster, i realise i reallie in for a contention for medal chances, i reallie go as fast as i can. Luckily for me i came in third! beating some of the guys by a few microseconds! Phew~ Thanks to my teammates and if only i chiong at the very start of the race, prolly i can get better placing!?!? hahahah... oh well.... that's the first bronze medal for Singapore lifesaving for this arafura games and i'm glad i'm got it. *grinz =)


The team manager were relieve after i got the first medal for our sports, cos at least he got something to write in the report and for me, i'm happy for myself and i will try to get another again for tml pool competition.


Once the pool competition finished, we head back to hotel(hostel) to rest a while before heading to the beach competition which was held at mindil beach. This beach is famous for its night market, which only operates on thurs and sunday night. After the beach competition we went to the night market to walk abit. Just briefly scan tru cos the next day early morning we had our last day of competition which is pool competition.


Day 9


The last day of competition!!! Had some great fun, Was kinda in a more relaxed mood because of my bronze medal ytd, however was looking forward to adding more medals for today competition. Finally manage to claim another bronze medal and surprisingly a gold medal for the last event of the day. =) During the gold medal presentation, finally able to sing our national anthem at the podium as our national anthem was being played. Its been a long time since i last sing national anthem, its almost like 6 years!!! ahhahaa.... to sing at the podium there was great! a proud moment definately! =)


At night, we had a treat from our team manager and coach at a chinese restuarant! yummy! finally some "luxury" food for our stomach, Then its free and easy. Some of us then went over to a Gay and lesbian club to look look see see. Sometimes i hate to go clubbing, cos as usual it is very smoky, and its like not very healthy for my lungs and my eyes teared as a result of those horrendous smoke at tt place. Saw some interesting things and of cos feeling kinda gross when i saw two man kissing and caressing each other. Yukes! pukes!


Day 10


Finally no more competition, it's shopping time!!! hahahaha~ went around to tour around the place and do some shopping. Evening time went for the closing ceremony of the arafura games. The closing was kinda different, is more like a celebration kinda thingy, cos got stage performance and 5 mins plus of fireworks! Didnt stay till the end cos our team went straight to the casino which was just next to the closing ceremony place.
The entrance to the casino is free and as usual is smoky inside due to some smokers smoking heavily in that place. Saw lots of ppl with different expression, some is either stress that they losing or are so excited that they winning quite a fair bit.


Went to play jackpot there, at first i was losing quite badly, more than $10 plus then like some season gambler, i was hopping around those different jackpot machine. That's the theory of some gambler stating that when u win money in that certain jackpot machine, it is time for u to go away or another machine because the jackpot machine is tuned in such a way it will build a hugh money bank before it gives out winning again. Hmmm... so based on this theory, i was reallie hopping around searching for unoccupied jackpot tat didnt give out winning before it was left unoccupied. Not long after, I managed to recoup my loss and earn $1 in profit! ahhaah. That's enough for me, cos i dont wanna lose money .... $1 still a profit yeah... =) Anyway its like kinda late so we decided to go back to our hotel. Took a cab back to our hotel(hostel), Australia cab meter jump faster than compared to our singapore cab, and its more expensive as well. So i think i'm not gonna complained about our Singapore Taxi charges! hahahahah......


Day 11


Went walking around again, and its like kinda the last day of shopping, cos the next day there wont be any time to travel and shop. Boughts souvenirs and foods, yup food, cos some of those food flavours (chocolates) we cant find in singapore =)
At night we went to chill out in a nearby pub.


Day 12


It's home sweet home!!! Did some reallie last min shopping nearby our hotel(hostel) then off we go to the airport. I cant wait to go home, because i just miss my bed too much!!! hahahaha... Didnt reallie sleep too comfortably for 12 days because of those bunk beds!
The taking off and landing was much better this time round compared to the day we left for australia, i guess its all depend on the pilot flying skills or was it the plane!??!?!?!


Finally saw my family and my darling at the airport! It was great to see them again. Show them my medals and took some photos there. Finally i'm home!
That night i reallie sleep so soundly, Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... Wat a wonderful Bed i have!!! =)