What the weekend was about. (edited)

You were there the two whole days even when it was clearly a long and drawn out, and to some extent, even a boring affair. (since you were not competing)

But you stayed on, to encourage in your quiet, sensitive, caring and self-sacrificing way.
(and enduring yabs and pokes from my team mates...!)

I don't know how else to thank you, but to let you know here, that every little kind gesture you showed spoke volumes to me.

Every single big and small thing that you did... From the moment i saw you, to the moment we parted.

Too many to name. ;-)

I really appreciate it all, very very much.

*** ***

Undeserving, unexpected and unbelievable.

- After 3 months of irregular practice, (2 weeks practice, 3 weeks MIA... cycle repeats again.),
- 2-3 days of actual practice at 18m to get the sighting right (the rest of the practices were at 15m)
- of hoping that i wouldn't finish up last again...

The NUS Indoor Shoot is over and i can now rest a little. The next competition is either the SAFSA shoot or the Pesta Sukan Shoot.

Both of which i think are outdoor events.
Being too close to the exams for my comfort, i most likely won't be taking part in both.
So, i am banking my hopes on DMArchery, that they'd have that year end indoor shoot again, like last year.

The first day of the competition (for the individual events), saturday, of the shoot was a glitch filled one, holding us back about 3+ hours more than what was planned. That probably got a lot of archers complaining.

The place was crowded! Loads of equipments lay all around the Multi Purpose Hall in NUS. There were those "instant set up chairs", archers from the assorted clubs and family members. Packed, packed, packed.

And you know what? My trigger release (you cannot shoot without it) went missing on the day itself. J saved the day with a superb brain surge on his part.

*OH HAIL J!!!*

Gosh! Panicked like mad and it made my team mates go kuku as well.

*OH HAIL J!!!*

When he came to me and said: "I've asked BC's friend already... Sure have one."
I almost died from relief.

*OH HAIL J!!!*

And guess what... BC's friend DID have an extra trigger. What's more, the trigger was of the EXACT same model as mine (except with a different strap), and better still.
The mechanism worked better than my own!

Tell me, God is Good, man...!

Despite the glitches, i still think that we archers were already blessed to have people plan the competition in the very first place so that we can compete.
Without them, how many others would willingly give up of their time and effort to organize and prepare for a competition?

Ok, so this IS an annual thing that NUS does all the time, but still! It requires their time, effort and resources.

I was sandwiched between two national archers, both of whom are sisters. Cute lah, the both of them. The younger sister, i think, tends to be the people-magnet one.

They're both real good and i hope that one day, they'll compete outside of Singapore.

There wasn't really much pressure, since it was simply doing something you love in air-con comfort (ok well, most would disagree here because we were all being grilled in the humid and warm Hall), at a reasonable distance of 18m.

It helped as well that THIS TIME, THERE ARE FINALLY (a few) MORE FEMALE COMPOUND ARCHERS!!!
My category (compound Open class Women's individual) used to be swamped by national archers. Erm... Actually, STILL is, but now there're a few more non-national ones added.

Gah... Because of my irregularity in training sessions and maybe some freak of nature while releasing the bowstring, history repeated itself. I missed the target 4 times, throwing away 40 points in all! *BLEARGH!*

But as for the times i did hit, the scores were all right i guess, averaging 8. Though what i really should be averaging is a 9, with mroe than a handful of 10s.
T'was all all right anyway.

(Especially when someone has very good Waterboy skills. *monkey grin*)

On sunday, we had the team events. My team got kicked out early but it was ok, since we lost by a relatively not-too-big margin, given that our opponents were darn good (one national archer included in their team).

During the first end (3 arrows per archer) for the team event, i was shaking away with the high adrenalin and nervousness. So... The score was like, 9, 7, 6. But later on, things looked up with 9,9,9 and 9,8,8 (not sure of the last end though, but it was around this score).

I love the pressure, the swiftness of the exchange from one archer to the next at the shooting line, the time that's ticking away, the whole routine of drawing, aiming and releasing.

WOOHOO!!!

Toodly doodly doo!

We had one powerhouse in my team. Hah, but i guess oh well, kinda neutralized out but neh mind. There'll always be other times. It was really really fun. I highly recommend indoor shoots.

After all my events were done with, i really wanted to get home cos i was feeling a little lethargic. But i decided to stick around since i liked just being around, and seeing bows, arrows, targets and my team mates.

We had lunch and being the GOOD, APPRECIATIVE, LAW ABIDING, citizen I AM, *teehee* i decided, ok lah, stay for prize presentation to support support a bit lah.

And whaddaya know?

6th! How about that?!



Ok lah. 6th out of 12 people isn't a big deal. But what makes me happy is, that the 5 above me were national archers from Singapore and Malaysia (d'oh! They're GOOD!) and i beat one national archer. So yeah. I is happy.

Good thing i stayed after lunch man. Heh heh.

I thought it was odd because usually, prizes are usually for either:
1st to 3rd and/or 1st to 5th.

My first archery related trophy after this third attempt at competing.

Of all the muscles i've worked in the past two days, none of the muscles exerted for shooting are aching.
My jaw muscles the ones aching... Due to furious chewing of gum. Heh. Eating now causes discomfort but as you all already know, i like muscle ache.

There's a lot more i want to say... But there's also a lot of school work waiting to be done so... Adious!

Till Then.
*Thank you LORD! Didn't quite expect the outcome, but yeap, thanks for the encouragement you gave in various ways.*