A Water Rocket Tale

If you guys are wondering why have I stopped updating my blog so frequently since the pass few days, let me tell you the story behind my laziness :P

1. I m totally exhausted everyday after I came back from the water rocket competition that lasted for THREE DAYS CONSEQUENTLY!! (which was kindda fun :D :D)

2. I wanted to update the water rocket competition in one post (which is what I am doing now)

3. My inertia just stopped me from updating my blog these few days. I would like to remain at my relative stationary pose. xD

Alright, enough for rubbish, let's move on to... PICTURES AND DESCRIPTION of my DAYS!

A Water Rocket Tale

DAY 1 - 27.5.2013

Kirrthana and I had prepared everything and we were ready to.. DIE OUT OF SHAME!! MUAHAHAHA..>< LOL. Not literally, but yes we'll die out of shame. In the morning, Teacher Krencana fetched us from the school to Teknik Tunku Abdul Rahman. We were in quite a mess because we did not have enough raw materials and we forgot to bring some of the things needed. But luckily, everything went on smoothly which meant not as bad as we thought it would be. 

Made water rockets in one of the school's dining hall

Had our lunch at a nearby Malay food stall

Our water rockets.. HOHOHO..

Water rockets presentation afterwards.. Nervously trying to read everything in the book and hoped that everything will go into my head

Got to know two new friends. The Indian boy is Kirr's another camp's friend from SMK Methodist while the other boy who looked cute was Jacob from Chung Ling High School. I love candid shoots :P

So the first day was not bad at all. The presentation went on well although we were quite blur about certain question the judges asked us and definitely found it hard to explain Physics theories that relate to the making of water rockets. But oh well, I managed to say a few points and just splatted out whatever I knew regardless it was right or wrong. And Kirr played a good sidekick role and helped me whenever my mind went blank. A day full of laughters with our teacher, new friends and even the judges/interviewers. Especially with my acquaintances. We blended into topics very naturally as though as we've met each other for a long time. Awesome day! :D :D

DAY 2 - 28.5.2013

Today was a bit awful than yesterday. It was a red letter day - the day we launch our water rockets. So we made two types of water rockets, one without the parachute (which launches at 45 degrees) and another one with a parachute (which launches at 90 degrees). We initially did not bring the most important thing - scissors. Oh God.. 

The live scene

The sky just grew dark suddenly and Kirr noticed that there was a faint rainbow hanging in the middle of the sky. Maybe our apocalypse wasn't coming after all :P

There were two tents provided for participants to launch their water rockets. The emcee called out the name of the schools participating one by one and the participants walked to the tents respectively. The 1st launch of our water rocket (without parachute) was terrible. It just went into the air and spun a little which looked very faulty and only lasted for like.. 5 seconds, then THUMP! It landed straight onto the muddy ground. But we wasn't the school with the worst water rocket though :P After all the schools tried their water rockets, we were given 10 minutes to repair/ modify our water rocket. Kirr and I were so helpless as we could not think of anyway to make our water rocket better. Physics theories were hopeless for us, so I went for the common sense instead. I was thinking of something like fish fins. If fish could swim in the water and resist the water pressure, then the same theory should be working on water rockets as well. So, teacher helped us to cut the fins smaller into what I called them as fish fins (but one of the judges said the fins looked like butterfly wings) and we were given a second chance to launch our water rocket. I thought we really had to die out of shame this time, but Godness gracious! Our water rocket flew higher, further and definitely better than our 1st attempt. God bless us!

After the 1st session, we had 2 and a half hours of break for lunch. We took our lunch at the same Malay food stall again, then headed back to the school. Out of bored, we began to read the novels that we had bought along to kill the time. Yeah, literally "kill" the time. And I actually finished the whole "Beautiful Creatures" novel at there =.= Then, Kirr and I loitered around the school because it has huge school compound. Plus, the break time left was still in abundance. 

Me: boyish . Kirr: ladylike

Hmm.. Lady who? xD

There was some kind of exhibition

Had our thumbs printed on the "I love archeology" board

There was some kind of performance after the break which was very impressive. I think they were trying to recruit members into the astronomy club or something.

Then.. It was the nervous breakdown part - the launching of water rocket with parachute. We didn't prepare very well for this and so eventually our parachute did not open during our 1st trail. But after the 10 minutes of modification, our parachute opened perfectly although it landed very fast. I really had to thank Jacob and his partner for their willingness to lend us their scissors, powder and stuffs. They were really good and in-need acquaintances/friends.

DAY 3 - 29.5.2013

Today was the last day of the water rocket competition. And it was the most exciting one - free style. HOHOHO.. That means, we can unleash our creativity in this section. Unfortunately, ideas are always better than reality. I've got wonderful ideas and Kirr gave some ideas as well. We made the water rocket just in the nick of time and I got car sick by the time we reached the Teknik school. 

Today, it didn't feel like it was a competition at all. We were just sitting there with no nervous breakdown or muscle cramps or artery failure xD Haha.. Our design was special (but not outstanding enough) because our water rocket had three parachutes. Two on the head of the smaller bottle by the sides and one on the body which included a big 100 plus bottle with the two smaller bottle by its side. We even mixed water colors with the water although the effect was not as prominent as we imagined it would be. But yes, our water rocket took off with pride and the parachutes did come out too, but only two did. One parachute did not open and fell to the ground with a lot of powder poured out from the head of the bottle. 

BRAVO! Haha >_<

Actually we were suppose to wait at the tent until they announced the 5 chosen best groups for a second launch to choose the best 3 groups out of the 5 chosen ones but obviously we were not one of the five groups. So, after we launched our water rocket, we went to have our lunch at Four Seasons shopping mall since it was just a stone's throw. We couldn't decide which restaurant we should go. In the end, Teacher Krencana made a decision and the beautiful photos below were born.

 

Yes! We went to Winter Warmers. I had not given a single thought that I would enter Winter Warmers for the 1st time with Teacher Krencana and Kirr. Fabulous! :D :D

 

HA HA HA HA.. Self shot

Our beautiful Teacher Krencana :D :D

We took our own sweet time because the break time was just too long. But we enjoyed it being so long though. The food at Winter Warmers were pretty good especially the baked macaroni that Kirr had ordered. But my Fettuccine Carbonara was not that good as the sauce tasted a bit too sweet and it was just not the type of taste I would like. 

When we got back to the school after our wonderful lunch, it was the time when the closing ceremony started. It started around 2.45pm and the speeches were delicate, but to us, it was always too long as usual as the part we looked forward to the most was the prize giving ceremony. Although our school didn't get any single prize (because the water rocket competition was the only competition our school sent representatives to compete), but it was still a pleasure to look at the joy on the winners' face. Chung Ling High School was the biggest winner this year. In fact, I heard it from Jacob that his school won in every single Science & Technologies competition apart from the water rocket competition. But frankly speaking, I'm sure everyone tried their best and there shouldn't be any blaming on anyone's failure to gain a placing. It was quite competitive I'd say. 

So this is where my water rocket tale come to its end. Hope you guys enjoyed reading my post :D :D

Water Rocket? Crap!

I'm sure lots of you know a little about water rocket? It's quite a fascinating creation that is created reagarding Newton's third law. The water rocket is created by using an empty soft drink 1.5 litre bottle (about that size) and a few (2 to 4) fins will be added to its side to make it fly further. The water is forced by pressurized gas, typically compressed gas. It is launched into the air by using a launcher. 

My best friend - Kirrthana and I have signed up to participate in the water rocket competition this year and we were insane for doing that because none of us are good in physics or maths or any calculation thingy. So basically, we're finding ourselves a trouble. A hot-handed one. Tomorrow is the day we'll be competing against other school and we've prepared everything. But seemingly, my school's launcher is obviously "out of our league" because it doesn't function properly and it's very old fashioned. So.. DANG!!  Kirrthana and I do not know how far can our water rocket go because we don't have a launcher to do us that favor. So... We'll see about that tomorrow. Either we get scared half to death or we'll get a heart attack tomorrow. 

Our preparations:

We met up this morning and got our hands to work.

Our parachute. Guess who's the owner of the 3rd hand? xD

Snapped this photo out of bored. The one with black shirt on is Yin Yin, our senior in making water rockets. She's a good senior. Blessed to have her with us :D

Ok.. My hair looked totally "helmetic" in this pic =.= We're trying to figure out what's the best way for our parachute to fall to the ground perfectly.

1ST ATTEMPT: FAILED! We used two balloons and and plasticine to fill the head of our rocket as a tentative plan but when we tested it, we failed! BOOHOOHOO!!

2ND ATTEMPT: LANDED SUCCESSFULLY! :D :D

My funny expression

Straight stick Kirr and starfish me jumped out of joy! Yatta!

In the afternoon, I went to Kirr's house right after my piano lesson. Photos' up:

Selfies:
P.S.: Just in case you are curious why I looked.. slightly different (I had my double eyelid paste on so I look kindda different, but pups, it's still me!)

Tried to fix my "helmetic hair" (in Kyle's word) but I think my hair ended up looking like a peacock's tail or something.. Looked worse ><

Ok.. Kirr just covered half of her face with the camera >< I was trying to act like a hipster but I guess it's an EPIC FAIL!!

Looking awkwardly FIERCE!! Kirr looked good :D

Both of us looked good in this pic!! Hah! I was trying to fix my strange-looking hair again. This time, the technique I used is - camouflage. Tryin' to look natural with my hand grabbing a bunch of hair. Love it although it's a bit shaky :3

Hope that our results won't be too bad tomorrow. 

Stay tuned to my blog if u wanna know how well or how bad we've done tomorrow ;)

Wesak Day Outing

Ok.. Yesterday was totally exhausting. I went out with my family for the whole day and that was the fun part. It was suppose to be fun. But the thing was I wore the wrong shoes -.-! I wore the Te Chi-Chi skin coloured high heels instead of the comfortable and cozy Crocks rubber sandals. Oh gosh.. It's a terrible mistake! On second thought, it was a FATAL mistake. My legs were nearly torn off because of the high heels. Well, let me tell you why in my next few paragraphs. 

The morning was a beautiful, lovely and invigorating one. I woke up earlier than my other family members who were still sleeping soundlessly and I stealthily walked down the stairs and crept upon the novel that I have been reading for ages - "Beautiful Creatures". Around 11 in the morning, my family and I went to Gurney plaza to have a good thrill at the theater. There was a terrible traffic congestion because yesterday was Wesak Day and everybody was out celebrating it. 

Before watching "Iron Man 3" at the theater, we went to fill our tummies at Chicago Ribs House. The restaurant was full of people and we weren't able to find any empty seat at all. In the end, my mum left her phone number to the receptionist and requested her to give us a call when there are empty seats available. After we got our tickets at the E-payment counter, the receptionist called my mum's cell phone and the timing was just great! 

Nice menu cover

 

After we finished our meal, we rushed into the cinema in the nick of time. Iron Man 3 was a fantastic movie and the plot was arranged perfectly with an interesting storyline. It was funny how Pepper turned into some kind of hot-larva-mutant and saved Iron Man. Haha.. That part was quite shocking to me. Our next destination after the movie finished was - Tong Pak Fu! After having a light tea break at Tong Pak Fu, my brother and I bugged my parents to go to Popular bookstore so my parents finally budged and brought us there. I guess it was a nightmare for my parents to bring us to bookstores as we never fail to spend over hundreds on books and random stuffs. I have planned to buy the book "The Perks of Being A Wallflower" for a very long time so I bought the book right away since it was and it IS selling fast. I bought the one with blue cover although I was not very satisfied with it since I didn't get the other one with green cover because IT WAS SOLD OUT! 

 

I bought a Pilot Dr Grip and had my name engraved on it. And there goes "The Perks of Being A Wallflower" and "The Help". There was a 20% discount on the books ;)

At night, we walked from Gurney plaza to a nearby food court outside Gurney plaza. My feet was aching by the time we reached the food court. Later, we walked from the food court to Gurney Paragon which was exhausting as I was wearing high heels and was walking with a pair of worn-out-because-of-shopping-for-a-whole-day feet (read: sore feet). So I was not in no mood and in no shape when I reached Gurney Paragon. We lingered at Gurney Paragon for like 15 minutes, then we called the day off and went home.

On the way home, there was a traffic jam again because it was Wesak Day and a lot of people were playing firecrackers in the middle of the road which was quite a merry scene. The crowds were like satin fish xD It was a fun day but I regretted so much for not remembering to bring my camera out!! Ughhh.. ><

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed reading my post ;) 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! :D :D

Left... but not forgotten

"It has been about two months since you had left us. You left us soundlessly, without a note. The sky didn't even rain. There was nothing but the tranquil sky with patches of grotesque clouds and there weren't even raindrops that indicated bad things might follow. Not even a single crappy metaphor. "

Nobody would ever wanted him to leave us. I can assure that. It just couldn't be him - the funny, out-spoken, silly boy who always made us had a good laugh whenever he was around. Everything was just too sudden. The boy who just made a compliment on my profile picture a few days back then was gone, just like that. I wasn't a Facebook addict, but it just so happened that I signed in my Facebook account on that particular day. I couldn't believe all the status and words that was so overwhelming. I know I weren't that close to him but I really couldn't accept that he had just gone. I mean, life is not like playing computer games. A character can't just die and puff into thin air. Not like that. Not after what he had gone through together with his friends, families, closed ones and loved ones. The bond couldn't really be erased. When I walked solemnly towards his coffin and saw him lying in there without a trace of life, it really made my soul went empty. It was really so hard to accept the fact that someone you've known for your entire life had gone to another world, where there were no vacancies for us.

To endure the pain of losing someone couldn't be that hard, I once thought. You just gotta be brave enough, stop your teardrops from rolling down, put up a brave front and done. Life just goes on. But I was wrong, dead wrong. It wasn't that easy, it was a complicated feeling. It's like watching a person that was once so lively jumping here and there in front of you, sharing secrets with you or singing a song with you just couldn't talk to you anymore. I can't differentiate reality and dreams. He was still there, right in front of me, right in front of us, but there were cuts and bruises on his face, and he wasn't going to talk to us anymore. I felt my throat tightened and there was no way I could control what was going to happen the next second. Teardrops rolled down like raindrops. 

I knew that was not what I was suppose to do. I knew he'd want us to be happy, I knew that he'd want to be here for us. But he just couldn't anymore. Perhaps his gibberish speeches around us bugged us for most of the time when he was still alive, perhaps some of his characters were a nuisance to the class when he was still alive, perhaps you'll find his random texts like : "I'm boring now. Can you chat with me?" annoying when he was still alive, but everything had become a luxurious now, after the evening had taken his life away. But of course, nobody would ever dislike him. Anybody, but not him.

Life is like an uncharted water I always say. But no, I don't want it to be this way. I know life is not much of what we can change, and what we are capable of changing is just too little, but it's just too hard for us, for me. Nobody said anything after he was gone, not much words were spoken after he was gone, but the ache in each and every one of his friends' heart were left unspoken. Like now, we don't talk about it every second, every minute of our life. We don't really think about this and get our teardrops rolling like our eyeballs are two infinite pools of water. But this doesn't mean that the pain is gone. This is when my favorite sentence comes in - life is like an uncharted water. So if this challenge is a sea that we've got to swim through, then we've got to learn to survive and overcome the grief. 

I know I am a puny girl. Physically puny and mentally puny. I thought I had been able to accept that he had left us forever, but two days ago when I was typing my JCI CUP basketball match committee, I saw his name laying there on the last year's list. My heart ached a little. It was only a year ago, and everything had changed now. But as I said, life is life. We should do what we should have done.

He taught me a lot of things that were never to be bought with money and he had brought us a lot of laughs and happiness. I believe that he belongs to be with sunshine and heaven shall be the place that he would rest in peace. Although we lost him, but he is not forgotten. His presence is still very much felt in our hearts. 

We'll be strong for you Pak Seng. It's a promise. 

And you know, we would never lie to you. 

Exploring UK (the sequel of Fascinating United Kingdom)

United Kingdom has always been my dream place since I was small, or technically since I watched the 'Harry Potter' series movie :P The movie just gave me a kind of fantasy thought about UK, and that's definitely gearing up my 'ohm' to find out more about UK and grab every chance I've got to set my feet on the land of UK. Haha.. So by judging my enthusiasm towards UK, I think you can call me a madman if I got the Kingdom Education's scholarship. I know, it's hard. But that doesn't set me off. If I chickened out just because it's hard to get the scholarship, I am pretty sure that's an understatement :3 

So speaking of the details of this scholarship, I'll be highlighting on main 3 points:
1. English Classes & Interview Preparations [erratic breathing]
This summer school program actually provides English lessons to improve participants' formal and informal English skills. I guess I was attracted by this because I feel that British accent is very awesome and I would really like to enhance my speaking cause I just get tongue-tied almost every time when I speak in English. Part of that is because of my braces but I still think I am the main problem. Well basically, it's not just British accent that is very cool. I think every English-native-speaking countries have pretty interesting accent. 

British accent's on ;)

2. University tours & Photo tours [erratic breathing + stomach lurches]
The participants will also get to go to a lot of prestigious universities in United Kingdom as I mentioned before in my previous post. I think that would be the most fantastic experience ever because not any-who can just walk into the university like nobody's business. And WOHOOO~~ Here comes the exciting part - photo tours! Oh yeah! The participants get to visit a few places of interest in UK such as:

Warwick Castle

Stonehenge

 

Blenheim Palace

3. Dining & Etiquette Class & Formal Dinner [heart explodes]
The is the part I look forward to the most. The participants will be acquainted with the traditional English table manners and custom. There will also be four formal dinners that the participants will be attending at UK. In my dictionary, formal dinner is often defined as prom night. Haha.. I know they're both totally different things but I just can't help myself from imagining that since I hardly ever attend formal dinners and I've never attended any prom. But the proms in the movies really sucked my curiosity out of my soul and I really wanted to attend a prom so badly (although I'm not sure if any gentlemen would invite me to be their dancing partners courteously xD) 

Hoho.. My wild wild imagination >_<

Let's just cross our hands together and wish me and my best friend luck.
Hope there will be good news in no time :)

Fascinating United Kingdom

Yeah!! My mid-term exam has finally came to its end. Thanks to the mid-term exam, I've built a strong bond with Kit Kat! Not to mention, I'm originally a chocoholic but during exam periods, I just grew particularly fond towards chocolate products such as chocolate crepes or chocolate wafers like Kit Kat. Strange habit of mine.

Taken by: Photographer Jia Qi . Tagline: Tastes like heaven! :D :D

Well anyways, I've just applied for the Kingdom Education summer school program scholarship recently. As a matter of fact, I've just sent everything that's needed to apply for the scholarship yesterday, exactly on the date of the deadline. Luckily I managed to patch everything up in time. I saw the article about this scholarship on last Wednesday, called the organizer to inquire about the details of the scholarship and : Oh God, I found out that I needed a recommendation letter from my school! The organizer said that besides the 500-word essay and recommendation letter, I need to fill in the application form too and she'll send to me later on. So the application form is none of my business and all that's left is the recommendation letter. I quickly asked Teacher Selina to do me this favor and thank God she was good enough to help me with this whole thing. And who knows, another terrible thing happened - I did not receive the application form from the organizer from last week till this Monday! 

 

My facial expression in the depths of my heart

When I got home from school on Monday with the recommendation letter, I frantically phone the organizer and forgot my lunch for the 1st time :P The person in-charge that picked my call up was Stephany (same with the person I talked to last week) and she said that she had been trying to contact me to confirm with me my email as she couldn't send the application form through. In the end, I confirmed my email with her and I received the beautiful (I am not exaggerating!) application form, filled it, and sent it together with the 500-word essay and recommendation letter to the organizer. That was how I sent my application for the scholarship in last minute. It was a close one though.

PHEW!

Besides the application form, the organizer had also sent me a copy of the itinerary of the whole trip to United Kingdom. And the itinerary was like - WOW!! Basically, there are three summer school programs. But the duration of the scholarship I've applied is from 28 July to 11 August (schooling days), meaning two full weeks spending at United Kingdom without needing to pay a penny for the transport to and from the air port of United Kingdom, all meals, accommodation, activities, classes, excursions and medical health and insurance. Isn't that just great?? That is of course, if I got the scholarship. :P Teheehee..

P.S.: I've chosen medical as the subject I am taking on the summer school program btw.

Anyways, the itinerary is just wonderful. I've checked up the period of season throughout the year in United Kingdom.

Spring	March	April	May
Summer	June	July	August
Autumn	September	October	November
Winter	December	January	February

Hohoho.. I've experienced summer and winter before but I am really looking forward to the summer at United Kingdom as we get to do a lot of sports activity during the summer school program. All the sports activity that the organizer have planned for us are really rare in Malaysia, such as:

Rugby

Punting

Croquet

Cricket

Aren't all these sports seemed a bit alienated for you? Well, they are to me. Haha.. But no worries, I'm sure I'll try them out later in my life (it doesn't mean that I am going to get the scholarship, it's just because I am interested in those sports activities)! 

Well, what's more about this summer school program? This summer school program is all about university tours. We've got the chance to visit around 20 out of 30 top universities at UK. Well let me mention a few here. The colleges & universities includes: Imperial College, King's College London, Royal Holloway University, Durham University, Nottingham University, Loughborough University, York University, Bath University, Oxford University, Warwick University ++ Cool right? I know I promised to mention only a few, but I can't help myself because I am just too excited about the tour although I am not selected as the scholarship holder.. yet >_< The participants get to stay in the dorms of Oxford University and be treated exactly like the undergraduates of Oxford University. The participants will also be attending formal dinners and making cultural visits to various historical places in UK. More details will be coming up soon!

*To find out more about Kingdom Education , click the website below:

 http://www.kingdom-education.org/

 Stay tuned ;) And thanks for reading my post.