Part 2 of my series of "My Last"s is Merentas Desa.

To begin with, Merentas Desa didn't manage to go the way I wanted it to.

I had previously spent the last few years NOT running in Merentas Desa after having a taste of it back when we the 2010 bunch first had it in Form 2. So for two years all I did was handle luggage deposit and reclamation as a prefect.

After my mid-teenage-life crisis, huge epiphany and intensive self discovery, I finally set my mind on going all out for this final year of Merentas Desa.

So I began to run. I would have liked to have begun running really really early since last year, especially perhaps during the year end holidays. But alas, some procrastination and two overseas trips in two months denied me the opportunity.

Never mind, I told myself. I would train when school began. And I did. Not long after school began, I began to run as well. First on a treadmill, which is peanuts compared to running on real solid ground, and then on to parks and stuff. I couldn't run far. 2km was about the maximum I could go. No surprise there. Like what I say when I came up with this proverb:~

If you've never pushed your limits before, don't be surprised to find out that they're not very high.

I didn't mind that what I was achieving paled in comparison to all my friends around me. I had already set my mind on the fact that this wasn't a fight between my friends, other people and me. This was a battle for myself. A battle between the old-me of nothingness and the new-me of living life to the max. As such, whenever I ran, it wasn't then just an issue of my brain forcing my muscles to keep running. It was also an issue of my heart telling my soul that I will not give up. Not this time. Not anymore.

Things got better when the running infection spread among my friends. Now running sessions weren't just training sessions anymore, they were also times to laugh, to share and to keep egging each other forward. Those were some of the best times of 5 years of my high school life.

Unfortunately all that would come to an abrupt end one Sunday morning after another training session. My right calf began hurting really bad after I stopped. I just thought it was a muscle cramp or something but it wouldn't go away. I ended up limping for the better part of two weeks.

On the surface I still wanted to fight. I told myself that it was nothing. The Tuesday after that I went for the last Rumah Hijau Merentas Desa practice. Although I managed to actually run the whole three rounds like never before, my leg hurt even worse after that. It was by then that deep down I knew that I probably wasn't going to make it in time for Merentas Desa.

Sure enough, the doctor I visited yesterday only confirmed what I didn't want to be true. I would not be able to run for Merentas Desa. Unless I want to continue limping like a pirate for the next few months or so.

To say I was disappointed would be putting it lightly. I had accepted the fact that I probably wouldn't be able to get in the top 30. I even accepted the fact that maybe I wouldn't even make it within the time limit. And none of that mattered because so long as I could run the track, run it consistently and give it the biggest 110% that I'd ever give in my life, I would be happy and proud with myself.

But to not be able to do so, mostly because I'd never given anything in my past a 110%, made me feel like an epic FAIL. I could have and would have handled the mental strain, no matter what. But I just couldn't handle the physical.

I ended up being a photographer for the Photography Club. At least I'd used the time productively and learned a little bit more about taking pictures, not rotting away handling luggage again.

To all those who were the top 30 and withing the time limit, congratulations to you all. You deserved every bit of it. And to those who were disqualified, you were all winners too, no matter what blind QMs and a failed surveillance system may say.  So congratulations too.

And that was the last Merentas Desa of my high school life. No more kaleidoscope of Colours (not till Sports Day anyway), no more hordes of sweaty people running back into the school and no more luggage handling.

Farewell!

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It feels good when I can silence the doubt in my mind and to finally feel like I'm running TOWARDS rather than AWAY from something.

Moving on.

I think I will begin a mini-series entitiled "My Last" to chronicle my last dose of everything high school has to offer me.

So today was My Last Gerko Day.

I would say it was well spent.

I wish I could say something positive a certain club, but I think inevitability will triumph in the end on that matter.

On the other hand, it was a blast to keep walking around the hall the whole day and hanging out with all my friends. And unlike previous years whereby I was such an antisocial and a nobody, this year I was hanging out around 4 different stalls most of the time.

First of all I loved hanging out at the Ed Board booth! Even though it's my last Gerko Day and I didn't get to man the booth properly and all it was still a blast to just go there and fool around and sign up for CHINESE department! WOO! ;P

Then I spent some time at Chun Yeen's newly formed (RE-formed actually) Photography Club. There, I took some camwhore photos professionally , which I will show you if I ever get around to acquiring them.

Another plus this year was the Interact booth. Okay well not really the booth per se, but the people of Interact. I bought a cow from Carmen, which ironically I can use to Force strangle Kyle with (Kyle...sounds like cow?) and then I tried to buy a Fareen that was on sale. But then Ms Sherlina outbid me by RM0.50.

Last but certainly not the least I checked out the Itanium Solutions counter. As usual, it was drowning out the neighbouring music club and society stalls right next to it by means of blaring speakers. I didn't managed to see a lot of videos like last year, but got to feast my eyes on a fanboy lightsaber duel video while I was there.

The rest of the day was long and draggy. I think we lost our halo to the myriad of people constantly borrowing it [they care about the halo but they don't care about the source...:( ]. The poor Selangor flag fell from the flag pole and nobody even bothered to fix it, meaning that I had to go over and re-tie it. And Aaron bought a grue. What is a grue, you ask?

This is a grue. And as you can see, nothing escapes a grue. Not even a LOLcat. Poor Aaron.

And I think the best part of the day is that there's no homework (or at least no new ones, as far as I know).

So there it is. My Last Hari Gerko.

Farewell, Hari Gerko! Never again will I see your crowded hall, endless wandering students and close to full day ponteng.

Farewell!

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I usually never really liked my birthday.

It was always near the first day of school. People would always be asking me when is it throughout the whole year, only to forget it in the first-day-of-school frenzy of the following year. And also because the people I used to hang out with never really cared that much to remember.

Until this year.

There were some very note-worthy things that happened this year.

Most Matching My Desire Gift:

Halo 3 ODST by Timothy Goh. Got special edition controller somemore.

Most Effort Put In Gift:

An Aperture Science Weighted Companion Cube by Tian Yoon. Seriously this whole thing was made from scratch and she was still sewing this when she came to my house. And now I have a friend who will never ever leave me. Isn't that right? Weighted Companion Cube? Yeah, I know. It sure is.

Best Surprise:

Love Gang +Rachel Gan and Sean Beh in Ed Board room!

Seriously guys I was so absolutely touched that you all actually bothered to plan such a thing and pull off such an elaborate hoax on me for the whole day. And to think that I only really began to know (or in some cases, RE-know) you people more ranging from a few months ago to just yesterday. Nobody has EVER done that for me for all my schooling life. Now my high school life is that much brighter and I can die happy =) Words cannot describe how much I LOVE you guys LAHHHH.....

And though the rest of this year will be hard, difficult and brutal, I will always have the first 4 days of 2010 to smile about.

Thank you guys so much!

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I step onto the bridge. It is windy. The chill bites through whatever clothing I'm wearing like so many completely permeable layers.

There is a hut-like protrusion from the bridge. It is there that I must go. I walk with tentative steps towards it.

There are harnesses hung there like dead carcasses at a butcher's. I grab one and put it on. An attendant is there. He helps me into it. For some reason the image of a prison warden securing a prisoner for execution pops into my mind.

It's not yet my turn. I stand and examine the one who goes before me. She steps onto the edge. She is about to jump. But with a squeal, her nerves fail her. She collects herself for a moment while another warden attendant consoles her. She tries again, and fails once more with the same effect.

Finally, she disappears. She has leapt (or has she been pushed?). And all I can hear is her shrill scream.

I'm next. The attendant beckons to me. I walk over like a convict heading to the gallows. I'm told to sit. They begin to wrap the cords around my leg. Within moments I am bound at the feet like a cattle at a rodeo show. I'm helped up and led to the edge. I peer over. The beautiful emerald of the river below is so at odds with its action of enticing me to my death.

I'm told to look up. There's a camera there. It flashes. One last living shot? I'm told to look left. There is another. Absent-mindedly, I wave. Have I lost it before I've even begun?

I look down one more time. My mind is blank. I hear the words. Ready? Three, two, one...GO!

I jump.

At first there is a peace. A calm. The world is silent as I hover for a split second over the roaring river.

And then I fall. I watch as the earth comes closer and closer. Now there is a rush in my ears. I close my ears. Now in my mind thoughts race around each other. Thoughts like "OMG I am going to die", "this DOES feel kinda cool", and "WTF WTF WTF WTF WTF WTF..."

Just as the fall reaches a panic point, I rise instead. I open my eyes.

I am safe. I am alive. The angels have caught me.

And it was friggin awesome.

The above text is my experience of bungy jumping at Kawarau Bridge, the world's first commercially available bungy jump site, near Queenstown, New Zealand.

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Finally. After who knows how many years of fruitless attempts to improve my skill in golf, I have at last, progressed to a level competent enough to try out a game on the course. Odd though, that this finally happened after I went back to the tutoring of Rashindran, the particular coach I had wanted to avoid.

Anyway. To begin explaining golf to some of the simpletons who are bound to be reading this. Many people don't know how golf is played. They think it is just a matter of swinging a club and hitting a ball. Anything deeper than that will produce a blank look and "I don't know". Well, to make this as simple as I can put it simply, the main goal in golf is to finish a series of "holes" with the least amount of strokes possible. Each "hole" has a recommended limit to it, called a "par". And the goal in each "hole" is to get the ball into the ending hole, located on the other side of that particular "hole" So if a "hole" states par 4, then you should get the ball into the hole with 4 strokes or less. A "hole in one" refers to being able to get the ball into the hole on the first shot, just so you know.

So, to begin my first golf game. My coach hired two caddies to accompany us,which I found very unneccesary. But they were quite useful though, offering advice on which club to use, where to aim, stuff like that. Never underestimate the caddy. They follow every type of golfer around, both pros and noobs, and are pretty decent players themselves. Besides that, they also provided some sort of company. And they haul your bags around and do all the stuff you're supposed to do. Like replaced divots and rake bunkers. I know this encourages laziness, but since they were there, why not use them?

Anyhow, the game went pretty badly. I supposed this is expected for a first-try, but still, it feels really disappointing to hit 9 strokes on a par 4 course. And I just played different than when I'm on the driving range. Alot of my shots kept slicing right. And my putting sucks really bad. But, all things considered, it could have been alot worse. At the end of it, I had a total of 60 strokes as compared to the recommended 36.

After going through today's game, I kinda like golf even more. It's a very soothing sport, where there is no mad, senseless rush to get the ball, like in football and basketball. You can play at a pretty leisurely pace, of course, not so slow until you hinder the players behind you, but slow enough to be calming. And everywhere you look there is flora, lots of it, in the trees, the grass, the pond, plus the occasional fauna as well. I have seen giant lizards on certain sections of the courses, and I heard my coach warning the caddy about snakes. Besides, in golf, you're not really competing to beat the other player. You're just trying to get a good score. Only at the end do you compare scores and determine a winner. I really wish to get my course license so I can finally play properly.

Brought to you by,
Nicholas
My putting needs some serious work.

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Alas! I have finally gone through a day using only public trasnportation. No, that isn't entirely right. My mom still sent me to the Bangsar LRT Station. But from then on it was all public transportation. I can finally be able to survive without a chauffeur. What a relief.

I didn't really go particular far or use many different modes of transport, but it's a start at least. I took the LRT from Bangsar to KLCC, all with just a Touch n Go card, which I must remember to remind my parents to get me one. After spending a whole day at the PC Fair with Tim, Kyle, Jo Fan and gang, I again took the LRT back to Bangsar. That wasn't the end of it. After that I took a....a bus (gasp). I did have to wait for quite a while before the proper one, U87, arrived. But after that it was pretty quick before I reached as close to home as possible. Though I wish I had more time to completely check out its route, since it's the ONLY bus that comes anywhere near my house. And it would be extremely convenient if the bus had Touch n Go as well. But then there's that one ticket that works for a whole day thing, so Touch n Go can't really work. Well, this is Malaysia. I guess I should be grateful the public transportation is at least functional.

I guess after going through today, my perception of our public transport system has changed for the better. Prior to this, I always thought public transport was only built as an afterthought, therefore explaining the sorry state of it. Look at the previous couple of years before RapidKL. And compare that to now. So credit has to go to Rapid KL for improving buses and rails. That doesn't stop me from thinking how utterly superior other contry's public transportation systems are compared to ours (London Underground, Parisian Metro), but at least I might consider using them more often in future.

As for the PC Fair. Well, it was my first ever PC Fair. I know. Very kesian la, me. What to do? I've never had such freedom before. Anyway, what are my thoughts about PC Fair? For one thing, alot smaller than I expected. I mean, it's big physically, but somehow it just seems smaller than I imagined. Another thing? Extremely tiring. To go one round just to compare prices and collect pamphlets, and then to go yet another round to actually buy the said item, tiring. And then there's the hesitation to actually buy anything at all. I guess it was partially because of my relative lack of cash, but that means I still haven't got the card reader and the mousepad, plus possibly a mouse, that I wanted. And my parents aren't very eager on going to KLCC this weekend. Not that I can't just go there myself, but I'm too busy to go there this weekend.

Well, I think I may be using public transportation for more stuff in future, like school, church, and going to people's houses. Nicholas Lyx is now mobile.

Brought to you by,
Nichoals Lyx

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