It's a special Sunday in the sense that it's the 29th of February. Other than that, it's just another normal day.

After the English Timed Practice this morning, I hung out with a few EXCO members in the Councillors' Room. In the afternoon we had an EXCO meeting.

Before that I also found out about our debate motion from Mrs. Howard. It was 'This House believes that voluntary euthanasia should be legal'. When I saw the word 'euthanasia', I was like, 'what?' She explained euthanasia as mercy killing. It looks like the debate standard in Singapore is getting very high.

Biology was the last paper. As always, I found myself finishing the paper in half an hour. When you start writing crap, you can finish a paper very quickly.

Today, the 'O' Level Examination 2003 results were also released. Our class had 33 A1s, 5 A2s and 2 B3s. Sadly, I was one of the two. Mdm Yong spoke to all students who got A2 or B3. I also listened to Mdm Foo's talks. Her advice was to forget about everything related to school during the weekend and start thinking about whether we should continue to study Higher Chinese after the weekend.

Originally there was a debate meeting scheduled for this afternoon, when the motion for next Friday's debate would be released. However, when the debate team saw that it wasn't out at 3 plus, they went home. Who would want to wait?

Note: I told my father of my 'O' Level results. His reaction was, "Wow, so high?" He later explained that when my elder brother took his 'O' Levels at the end of Sec 4, he received a B3 for Chinese too.

A. Maths and Physics weren’t too difficult.

For the Chinese paper today, the vocabulary section wasn't too difficult. The comprehension killed me. Geography Elective paper's questions looked simple but were difficult to answer.

Chemistry paper today wasn’t too difficult, but Social Studies was. (Well, a little.)

Today’s English comprehension passage was a bit difficult to comprehend. E. Maths was not too bad.

It's Sunday, but I'm not studying yet. Well, tomorrow's only English and E. Maths anyway.

Today is the day to rest our muscles and soul after yesterday’s adrenaline. There’s no time practice today, owing to the fact that Common Test begins on Monday.

Right after school, the debaters met in 4/3 for the mock debate. The win, of course, went to the other team.

After we had our lunch, I rushed off to MacRitchie Reservoir. The rest were taking a cab, but I didn't want to spend so much money on travel. I was able to reach the venue for the school's Annual Cross Country Race on time.

The Secondary 1s went first, followed by Secondary 2s. While the Secondary 4s were doing their warm-up exercises, news came that there seemed to be a problem with the Secondary 3s, thus causing them to be flagged off much later. By the time the Secondary 4s headed to the starting line, no fewer than 30 Secondary 1s and 2s were back already.

We were flagged off, me right in front of the starting line again. I ran with all my heart for the first few hundred metres. Then I slowed down because my legs were starting to get tired. Nevertheless, I continued in a half-run-half-walk manner for the rest of the 4.8km length.

I crossed the finish line. I was delighted to learn that I was placed 48th among the Secondary 4 boys. That was my personal record. I dragged my feet to look for Milo, but they were snapped up by the Lower Secondary students, whom I heard even filled their water bottles with Milo. I still found myself two bottles of mineral water, which I gobbled up greedily.

The Prize-Presentation Ceremony followed. Juliet was in 8th position in the Secondary 4 Girls category. Thanks to the girls from our class, we emerged as the Secondary 4 Girls Class Champion as many of them finished in the Top 50. We were then dismissed, and 4/1 went home victorious.

Okay, I'm back to my usual self. For everyone's information, I was a Brave yesterday.

The debate team met again today. We felt that we were on the wrong side again. Nevertheless, we're going to do our best.

My debate team for the Mock Debate this Friday (Xiao Thong, Xian Yin and I) did not meet today during recess, and we are not going to meet again tomorrow during recess and lunch.

For ELDDS today, we were not separated into three groups. The first group was not given a script for Maths Day. The second group was not supposed to plan for the Speaker’s Corner. The third group, the group I was not in, was not supposed to write the script for the Green Day cross-talk. I don’t think the most interesting performance today is the Maths Day group. The script was not about a usual day at an unusual school. Brights are people who do not speak the truth. Braves are those who never lie. So guess, am I a Bright or a Brave in this entry?

Crystal told me about the Mock Debate on Friday. The Mock Debate is on Friday and the notice has only been given 3 days before. This is brilliant. Anyway, the motion is "This House believes that there is too much money in sports".

Today, there seemed to be a piece of news spreading around the class about the girl whom Xianglong went to watch the MTV Asia Awards with last Saturday. Until the end of the day, however, I still do not know who that girl is.

Today is Total Defence Day. Just for the record.

The MTV Asia Awards 2004 was shown on Channel i at 9 p.m. tonight. The event was held yesterday night at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The stage design wasn't the best out of the three years that the MAA was held, but there was a specific theme this time, and it was LOVE. I kind of liked the theme. I watched the whole show, which ended at 12 midnight.

Today is Valentine’s Day, but the feeling doesn’t seem to be there. Right from the start of the day, we had Chinese Time Practice. With effect from today, Time Practices are scheduled every Saturday from 7.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. Basically it trains us to complete questions fast. Today, we had to complete three Chinese summary questions. It wasn’t easy, but I could manage. After that, I watched the Odyssey of the Mind teams practise for the rest of the morning.

When afternoon came, I headed to the canteen where the Councillors were going to have a Potluck lunch. We were behind schedule by a few minutes. Once Mr. Foo, the Guest-of-Honour had said a few words (including the good news that the lockers will be here very soon), we proceeded to mix the yusheng. The Sec 2s were the craziest, causing half the tray of yusheng to be on the table.

After the lunch, we had the monthly meeting. The first part was still okay. The second part of the meeting was the part a few of the EXCO had always wanted: to scold the Councillors. It was true that the standard of our Councillors has stagnated, and the moral aspect was going down. There was a need to knock some reality into the Councillors. I wasn't really good at scolding (because I end up crying most of the time), so I just kept mum and patrolled the room. The meeting ended after 5 p.m., way past the scheduled time.

This morning, announcements were given by me. Started 4 days ago, this was to give student leaders more opportunities to develop their talents. Incidentally, I was told to give a Total Defence message. In it, a part talked about the skits to be performed by the 'very talented ELDDS members'.

30 minutes before the Upper Secondary lunch period, I excused myself from Chemistry lesson to prepare for the skit. After changing into our costumes, we went through our lines once before heading out to perform. We returned to class after the performance.

Immediately after school, I went to the staff room to look for Mdm Foo to do my Chinese re-test. I did it until a few minutes past 3.30 p.m., then rushed back for ELDDS. Today's ELDDS was a Valentine's Day special. Performances were made by members who were not involved in the Total Defence skits. After the items, the teachers presented coasters to all members as a gift. The coasters were made in such a way that they can be joined together to form one whole chain. We went home after the session which ended a little earlier than usual.

Another normal school day.

During Assembly today, we were briefed about the emergency evacuation plan of the school. For ELDDS, the first hour was a phonetics course by Miss Ong. The second hour was dedicated to rehearsing for the Total Defence skits to be performed on Friday.

A normal school day.

Every day this week, the EXCO will meet up during lunch period to meet and settle the things we didn't settle on Saturday. Other than that, there wasn't anything else special.

Sunday...

There was an EXCO meeting in the afternoon. We were walking to our meeting venue when Mrs. Lim saw us and told us to meet her in the Staff Lounge. Once we had settled down in the Staff Lounge (which was empty except for a dining table and chairs), she informed us about the Calendar of Events of the school for the coming year. Finally, at around 3 p.m., we went off for our own meeting at the third storey study area in the Aesthetics block. We ended our meeting at 6 plus.

The debate team met up this afternoon to prepare for the debate. We had an impromptu debate after brainstorming for points that the opponent could come up with. After the substantive speeches, the speakers worked on their speeches while Xiao Thong and I lazed around. After a while we found something to do: we did a flip over thingy for keeping track of time. Using a calendar which Mdm Yong kindly contributed, paper, markers and glue, we drew the numbers in half-minute increments and pasted them on the calendar. I even drew a 'Nan Hua Sec Sch Debate Rocks!' and pasted it on the front of the calendar.

At 6 plus, we headed out. Casandra, June (both ELDDS members) and Pei Hwa (one of the debaters in the first mock debate we had) accompanied as spectators. We hailed 3 cabs. Xiao Thong, our dinner (nasi lemak) and I shared one taxi. We were the first to arrive at the canteen of ACS (Barker Road). Berton, an ex-debater from our school, was already there. The debaters and the spectators came a few minutes later. We had settled down to have our dinner when Eugene, another ex-debater, came with her mother and her sister. He helped the debaters a while after dinner while the rest lazed around.

Our debate only started at a few minutes past 8.30 p.m. Our opponent was St. Margaret's. A flaw we spotted in the Proposition team was that they did not link their points back to the motion. It resulted in me being confused as to how their points are even part of the debate at all (what enlarged breasts and facial hair; the debate was about banning sportsmen who take performance enhancing drugs). Our team won, but that didn't mean our team was really good, as it wasn't a unanimous decision. After the debate, Berton, Abraham and I hitched a ride on Eugene's mother's car. I rushed home to watch Survivor: All-Stars, missing half the episode.

There was a trip to the Body Worlds Exhibition at Expo today for all Sec 4 Biology students who were interested. Unfortunately, because I was involved in the mock debate today, I did not go. However, after the revision test today, only Crystal and I were present for the 'mock debate'. Therefore, it was postponed to tomorrow. Darn, I missed the discounted trip to Body Worlds!

For this afternoon’s ELDDS session, it was entirely conducted by me. The members had to brainstorm for script ideas for the Total Defence performance on February 13. The session was a bit chaotic, since all teachers were away for the emergency evacuation briefing, but the drafts for the two scripts came out by today.

I met with Mrs. Tan this afternoon to plan for tomorrow’s ELDDS session. I felt a bit embarrassed when I told her that the ELDDS committee doesn’t meet up regularly to plan stuff. I guess I need to start doing it to inculcate leadership skills.

It’s a holiday today because Hari Raya Haji fell on a Sunday (yesterday). The only exciting thing that happened today was the premiere of Survivor: All-Stars in Singapore. It’s a bit boring, and it was sad that Tina, the mother, was voted out. Well, I expect the season to be more exciting in the upcoming episodes.

It’s Hari Raya Haji and a Sunday too. After dinner, I played an online Amazing Race game. It was after the game that I decided to organise one for the Councillors too.