Thursday....

feeling dog tired now....completed the expedition to east coast todae with zhiwei....my second time, his first....so i tink he shld be feeling even more shag now ah...haa...

after my first expedition to east coast tis june wif xiankan and khenhian....i told myself i probably wun go on that route again.....why? cos we nearly lost our lives in june! recalling that ill-fated expedition....i still get the shudders....

I can't rem the exact date....but the first half of the expedition was smooth going....well, not dat smooth, but it wasn't exactly uneventful...juz the usual currents going against us.....it WAS the return trip which was frightening......barely 5mins after chomping down our Mac burgers at east coast, we noticed the looming dark clouds in the distance....and a consensus was reached to set off immediately....with the burgers and fries still undigested in our stomachs, we wanted to rest further before setting off but was forced by circumstances to move on.....den....before we could even reach Gay Beach(yah...it's called Gay beach cos there r naked guys there sunbathing all the time), torrential rain poured, accompanied alongside lightning, huge waves and deafening thunder....it came so suddenly, we were all caught by surprise...and with no proper land area to beach up, we panicked.....but eventually sprinted to the nearest patch of shore....where we seeked shelter under some torn canvases....shivering with cold and drenched to the skin....hours passed but the weather condition did not improve....to cut a long story short, we eventually had to set off in the terrible weather....and scary it was indeed.....and we were swept into a breakwater area....almost couldn't get out!!! finally, with our tired bodies, close to cramping muscles, dehydrated cells, and shocked brains....we somehow managed to get back to kallang sea sports club alive without being struck by lightning or capsized by the high waves....

back to todae....weather conditions were ideal for kayaking....and so we thot....again....the trip to east coast was fine....zw had to adapt to the kayak as he had never used tis Slalom before....but other than that, everythg else was perfect.....we even had 1hr to have our lunch....setting off for kallang at 1250, the weather still looked fine....and it remained fine all the way.....however, tis time, it was the underwater currents and strong winds which nearly defeated us.....after rafting up in the middle of the sea for a short rest, we both agreed that it was going to be smooth going all the way....cos we were ahead of our planned schedule and he was starting to get the hang of manoevring tis kayak....looking at a distant ship....by our experience...we shld have been able to get there in 20mins at most....however....30mins after aft raft up....the ship still looked as far as possible.....we virtually had not moved at all!!!!! the strong winds made it almost impossible to hold our paddles straight.....and they conspired with the equally strong underwater currents to drag us back whenever we paddled forward.....we were both mentally and physically drained....and even though i had completed this route before, i was secretly afraid that our energies would eventually be fully expended and forced to beach up at some uninhabited, deserted patch of reclaimed land....

finally, by encouraging each other on, and cheering each other, we managed to get out of that stretch....although the sea conditions were still bad after dat, we had at least overcome the worst...by now, both of us were reali being pushed to our limits oredi....both shag and harnessing our innermost reserves of strengths oredi....but like my first time, we eventually managed to return to kallang safely.....

in contrast, todae's expedition wasn't scary....it was juz extremely tiring.....my first one was reali scary....i was even hallucinating that we'd lose our lives and all dat....and i wasn't alone in being afraid of dat......i'm so thankful that both times, i managed to overcome all that.....phew....i tink i wun be going on tis expedition route in some time to come....perhaps try other routes from other areas.....

all in all, i had a great dae.....though it was unnerving at times, both of us overcame our own personal limits, pushed ourselves to new frontiers....and gained a sense of accomplishment which can onli be attained after going thru all that shit....

juz wanna thank the gods for seeing us thru safely.....well, i'm never complacent when i'm out at sea, and i'm alwaiz grateful for my safety....so i alwaiz thank my gods....

tink i need to rest oredi....

The person to beat is NOT in front.....But inside.....Impossible is nothing....
-Adidas
(a quote we saw at ecp for the standard chartered marathon, meaningful cos eventually, we beat our own old limits).....