2012: Breaking personal barriers

Apologies to all my readers (hmm i wonder if there's readers to my blog in the first place) for not doing much blogging for the past months, due to my packed schedule and a little tinge of plain laziness (i shall blame myself on this, perhaps i've found something better to do. More to that later)

However, I noticed something. My tagboard just got SPAMMED. I don't offer advertising space for you guys, please. (I don't mind if i got paid for it)

Since I didn't really write much (or nothing at all in fact) about the year 2012, here are the lists of highlights i've managed/achieved this year (not in any order).

1. Part of the executive committee of the Freshmen Orientation Camp'12 of SIMCMS (SIM Malay Cultural Muslim Society). I was basically the programmer of the whole event, and, undoubtedly being sabo-ed to the become the emcee for the event too.
2. Part of the title-winning team Yew Tee CSC in the Inter-Constituency Games and SNG (Singapore National Games). I must say I was pretty honoured to be playing alongside Ali Imran Lomri, an ex-national player.
3. Sunig... *cough*... first-half... *cough* champions! We played really well throughout the tournament, i must say, but were let down by lack of fitness and concentration in the last 10 min of the games and were duly punished by last-gasp goals for 3 games in a row! (from 2-1 to 2-2 with NUS, 2-0 to 2-2 with NTU, and from 2-1 to 2-2 with SMU and eventually winning SIT 4-2) Noticed the pattern? Yes, we conceded two goals throughout. We ended up as 3rd out of the 5 universities. It was very disappointing for such promising campaign and I was actually silently hoping we could finally win it in my final year but, i guess, it wasn't meant to be.
4. My 2nd year academic results was almost-there-yet-still-falling-short to my expectation. I'm still searching for the formula to achieve outstanding results. Anyone?
5. IVP disappointment. Losing out to SP, ITE and NP, and eventually beating NTU. The only takeaway for me was the match against SP, facing my own brother on the same side of the field and manage to score my only goal for the tournament. The last time we faced was the CCKSS vs TWSS and that was also another epic derby battle. It was also sad to see Marko, our coach has to step down and focus on his new coaching stint at Woodlands Wellington. Its been one of my best experience playing under his tutelage for 2 years, and putting faith on me every game on the right midfielder role.
6. Got called up from my Marko, what to be, my only chance to test my ability on professional level to play for Woodlands Wellington, in which I turned it down due to school commitments. If not because of the exams looming, I would have definitely accepted the offer.
7. Played for Suria football team in the Piala Dollah Kassim tournament, which we were disqualified due to 'infringement of the tournament rules'. Disappointing way to bow out but glad to play with the quality players from the FirstXI reality TV show.
8. My part-time working stint ends with NEC Asia Pacific in September when they moved over from HawPar TechnoCentre in Commonwealth to Boon Keng. It was indeed an invaluable experience learning from my superior, Julia (Cik Ju whom i addressed as), Joanne and my fellow colleagues Rani, Faridah and Hairi to name a few. Definitely will miss the Chicken Noodle with extra rice that i ate almost every lunchtime. Perangai PBG sey, but its only $3.50!
9. Had my first ever Mendaki classes this year. My kids are great bunch, love every single one of them and I will definitely missed their unique characters and behaviours. I hope you kids will grow up into good people and contribute back well to the society. Insya'Allah.
10. This probably go down as the most significant achievement in my footballing 'career' (Hahaha though to some it may not be much) when i was selected to be part of the 20-man squad Singapore Football team to play in the Asean University Games (AUG) in Vientiane, Laos from 9th to 21st December. It was the most memorable event for every aspiring footballer to experience; playing in the packed daunting Chao Anouvong stadium, the national stadium of Laos, having to see ourselves playing live on the national TV and getting mobbed by fans. I never thought it would be such a grand event, let alone, feeling like a celebrity over there. Haha. On top of that, the teammates and friends I've made there were awesome. We had such a great team bonding time, in every training sessions and leisure activities. Though i wished i could have played more there (I didn't get to play against Malaysia, and came in as substitute for the last 30 minutes of the Laos game), but it was still a good experience playing with good players in the ASEAN region. Sadly, we lost to Malaysia 1-0 in a nail-biting encounter and were deservedly beaten by the brilliant Laos side 4-0 (were told afterwards that 14 of their 20 registered players were from the Suzuki AFF team.)
    
    Yeap that's it! Darn.. i have to rush off now. Till the next time, i'll write again Insya'Allah.