iQuest Studios

OK, I have to admit it, my first group ride was a major screw up.

I shall begin from the time I woke up. By 0620, I was out of the house and starting my first ride in the dark, Very enjoyable, not much cars, since it’s a Sunday early morning. Anyway, reached there like 15 minutes before the start.

Then off we go. At the start, it was very simple, one whole big group (Joyriders) of about 30-40 riders, so I can just follow anyone. I was averaging at around 35KM/H, which is not bad for a beginner like me. I even reached 50KM/H at one point. Then came my first mistake. Instead of turning left at a junction (I didn’t know the route well) for a shorter route, I went on to take a longer route with some of the more hardcore riders. It is amazing that I even managed to stay with these guys, but it burnt lots of my energy.

We then regrouped with those riders who took the shorter route, and then continued on to our final destination. Unfortunately for me, because I didn’t pace myself correctly in the beginning, I dropped from the main group in the later part, which is still pretty much OK until I came to the junction, and I wasn’t sure of which way to go. Then suddenly this guy wearing the jersey of the cycling group came by and took a left turn, so naturally I followed him. However turns out that he was heading home and not going with the rest of the group. So I was like “OH SH*T!”

In the end, I managed to cycle back home after lots of guesswork and navigation. So all in all, I cycled about 80KM today, which is like double of the furtherest distance I have ever gone on my bike. Good training! I think I am going again next week.

Anyway, I finally got some high res pictures of my bike now. Check them out by clicking the links. (Links open in new window)

• Side View: http://www.iqueststudios.com/trek1200high.jpg
• Front View: http://www.iqueststudios.com/trek1200front.jpg
• Angled View: http://www.iqueststudios.com/trek1200angle.jpg
• Clipless Pedals: http://www.iqueststudios.com/trek1200clipless.jpg

I am really tired now, so,

Till next time,
cheers

Tags: cycling, Joyriders, Trek 1200

YES! I finally brought a new bike, thanks to my parents. It’s a Trek 1200, with a SuperLight aluminum frame. I got it fitted with clipless pedals as well, together with aero bars, so basically it is much better now. Anyway, everything, which includes:

• Trek 1200
• Aero Bars
• 2 Biking Shorts
• 1 Jersey
• Clipless Pedals
• Front and Rear lights
• Shoes
• and a Trek Incite 6I bicycle computer

came down to S$2070, which means I got a discount of about S$250.

Anyway, the bike is really sleek. Here’s a few pictures. (Sorry for the blur images, but my camera was out of battery and I can only make do with my MacBook’s poor 1.3 megapixel webcam.

Me posing with my jersey and sexy biking shorts

Anyway, that’s all for today, I can’t think of anything else but my new bike =D

Till next time,
cheers

Tags: Biking/Duathlon, Trek 1200

Yes, as promised, I would now continue with my post on Orientation.

So Friday. Friday was probably the most fun day for the entire orientation. It was mainly taken up by War Games, WHICH WAS VERY VERY VERY VERY FUN.

So, what’s war games about? Basically, each of the school’s 4 faculties “fight” each other in a free for all in a bid to be the War Games champion. We are supposed to throw water bombs at other faculties’ shirts, and the water will drip down to a bottle below. The faculty with the least amount of water will then win the game. As they say, a picture tells a thousand words, so I will let them do the talking now.

The “Killing Field”, with benches dividing each faculty’s territory

Our faculty shirt. Note that there are 2 shirts, but only 1 bottle to collect the water. One of the shirts is actually a decoy.

My faculty during War Games briefing:

In anticipation of war:

Me getting ganged by members of 3 other faculties.

All at peace after the games:

Our faculty when the results were announced - WE ARE THE WINNERS!

Actually, to tell the truth, we won purely because of tactic. (Athena is after all, the Goddess of Wisdom, Military Tactics and Weaving) Basically, for the first half an hour, we were clashing with Artemis (the blue shirt people), while Ares (the red shirts) were clashing with Apollo (the yellow shirts). We managed to hit Artemis quite hard, and they also hit us quite badly. (Although sadly, they were throwing water bombs at the decoy shirt most of the time). Then suddenly, both Artemis and Athena people were getting tired of attacking each other, so we decided to gang Ares. So it was basically a huge mess at the Ares battleground, with all the other 3 faculties ganging them. Pretty soon, both of Ares shirts were damn wet.

Then it happened that some Ares people started asking us to gang Apollo as their shirt was still damn dry. So everyone in Ares territory rushed over to attack Apollo. (Actually, Athena and Apollo have a truce, and we believe that Artemis and Ares had one too). To their credit, Apollo’s defense is really strong, and we had a hard time getting close to their shirt. However, we managed to inch our way there with our own human line formed by the 3 faculties. So basically, their defenses were wasted and we managed to hit Apollo.

The day was also very hot, so before the end of War games, lots of water actually evaporated from our shirt, unlike Apollo’s, which was very wet towards the end of the game. Also, it is also believed that because of Artemis’ carelessness, they actually knocked over our bottle 3 times with their bombs. So when the game ended, we had literally no water in our bottle at all, and we emerged victorious.

Then, in the evening, we had a campfire to mark the end of our 2 week orientation. It was a very touching event. All of us were cheering, singing and dancing and we really felt bonded together. Too bad it was raining for the first part, and we had our “campfire” in the school hall. But in the end, the rain cleared, and we had our proper campfire! Here’s a few pictures:

Our campfire made of LED lights

The actual campfire

Anyway, lectures have been going on for a week already, and next week we are going to have our first tutorial (and I still have not completed my Maths Tutorial :P) Anyway, I am getting to like my CT more and more, and I hope to enjoy my first year in college.

PS: I have added a Chipin Widget on my blog. If every visitor to my blog can just chip in a dollar or two, I believe I will have my triathlon bike in no time. SO PLEASE, HELP ME!

PPS: Now I have crossed the 20 thousand unique visitors mark. Keep going! And donate! Thanks

Till next time,
cheers

Tags: college life, hwachong, orientation

I am sorry for not posting for so long, but I was busy restarting my school life. This year, I have just entered into junior college, and I am rather excited about starting my college life. My orientation (Themed JUMPSTART) just ended yesterday (hence the blogging hiatus), and although it was very tiring, it was also a great experience! In fact, it’s such a great experience that I will dedicate this post to the past 2 weeks of crazy fun.

When the Orientation Groups (OG) listing first came out, I was rather sad, as none of my friends were in it. I mean, there were a few acquaintances, but I hardly talk to them. And the first day of orientation was really boring, with a lot of introductory talks about college life. The talks started at like 0800, and continued until like 1600, so I pretty much just spent the time chatting with my friends. And then we were separated into our OGs for icebreakers and some stuff, and pretty much the days ended there. Anyway, here’s a picture of our OG on our first day: (BTW, we were named OG 5, hence the arrangement)

It was the second day when our OG really started bonding together, and that was during the first OG games. Here’s a picture of my OG, dripping wet, after a game.

Despite the fact that we got 0 points (3 points for a win, 1 point for draw, 0 for losing) for the 5 games on the first day, we were still very happy (actually, “very happy” is an understatement) and we were making fun of ourselves.

In fact, we even got a special mention on the orientation blog for our enthusiasm. Check it out here.

In fact, after the second day, our OG bonded very closely together. We even broke our losing streak on the third day and won 4 out of 5 games, gaining 12 points! After orientation, we even went out together to eat dinner together. After dinner we chatted for like 2 whole hours, which is really amazing, considering that we have only known each other for like 2 days only.

The next day, (a saturday), we even went out together to Esplanade to get together and play a lame (but fun) game called “Polar Bear”. We then went to have dinner together at Pepper Lunch and celebrated an OG mate’s birthday. (we got a cake and stuff) I rather enjoyed myself that day. Here are some pics: (BTW, I am the guy with the black shirt and red tie)

Our OG Leader, and our fascination with our OG number:

Us at the Fountain Of Wealth:

Eating At Pepper Lunch

Acting Emotional at Esplanade

Fast forward to monday, which was really boring, as we had our first lecture. Blah Blah, and then we had song, dance and cheers session in the afternoon, so it wasn’t exactly interesting. We then went out for dinner again at another food centre near our school. AND WE MADE OUR OG LEADER TREAT US TO ISLAND CREAMERY. Here’s a candid picture of me taken during cheers session:

Tuesday was the last day with my OG, and it was really sad day for our OG, because we were really close to each other. Near the end of the day, we got into our Civics Tutorial Classes (CTs). But after that, my OG went out again, although I wasn’t able to join them as I promised my mum to have dinner at home.

On Wednesday, we were in our CTs (08S6J), and we played some icebreakers to get to know each other better, but I did not feet as close to my CT as I did to my OG. Then in the afternoon, we got to know our senior CT class (07S6J) and we played some perverted games with them. We then had CCA exhibition, which was quite noisy and messy as it was raining, and all the CCAs had to perform under shelter (including Lion Dance). Anyway, here’s a picture of my CT.

Then on thursday, we played a game called Time Attack, which was something like Amazing Race, where you go to places and try to complete tasks within a time limit. Nothing really interesting. Blah Blah, in the afternoon, we had a faculty committee meeting, where they introduced us to our faculty (or houses/consortiums or whatever you call it), ATHENA! Sidenote: There are 4 faculties in Hwachong, Athena, Apollo, Ares and Artemis, which are all named after Greek gods. Anyway, the faculty meeting was really boring, and I actually dozed off, so no point going into details. After the meeting, we then went to learn our faculty dance, which is really hard to learn, because it’s Hip Hop. So blah blah and fast forward to friday.

(OK, it’s getting late here, so I will post this part first, since Friday was really interesting and cool and will probably take me another hour to write)

To be continued..

Tags: hwachong, orientation