the story goes on

My much treasured athletics involvement has been saved from a premature end. An end that was caused by the seemingly uneccessary construction of the CHS sports complex (I wonder how it's been progressing) and the consequent no-sports-day decision. Either way, I've been running and jumping my heart out more than ever on the track since I came, simply because there's been lots more opportunity to. But the parallels are there, and so they came to me as I was lounging about the Olympic Park stadium waiting for my next event in the GSV (GirlSport Victoria) Preliminary Track and Field Carnival.

I remember the blazing hot days in Stadium Kelana Jaya, where the plastic seats in the stands got so hot you couldn't sit on them without burning your bottom and you'd come home shades darker at the end of the day. There'd be those Indian guys on motorcycles selling ice-creams, cold drinks and stuff just outside the compound, and athletes, both guys and girls, stretching and warming up all over the place inside. Which reminds me, it was back in Form 2 then, my first MSSD competition. Word was getting round that some girl and some guy were french kissing on one of the less populated stairways, and I remember thinking, w-hoa. It was really alien, almost mysterious then, such blatant show of affection in a public place, but I was young and naive...I barely even knew what french kissing meant! *shakes head solemnly* (I wouldn't bat an eyelid now of course, heh heh, but we're going off topic. =)

Just yesterday, I was at Olympic Park Stadium, dressed in four layers of clothes and sporting a pair of gloves. Condensation was having a field time in front of my face everytime I opened my mouth. That cold. These days, I wonder what it's like to sweat, wonder how the sun feels on your body, wonder how it's like to not have stiff, icy fingers all the time. (But the sun came out later in the day, and from certain angles, you could actually feel some warmth. There was a huge screen on one corner giving the latest results and listing upcoming events. The stadium also came equipped with cameras mounted on the sides of the finishing line. Needless to say, I was impressed.

The people were obviously very different this time round. 8 girls' schools competed in the prelim carnival (equivalent of MSSD peringkat zon)...lets see. Lauriston, Sacre Coeur, Camberwell, Genezzano, St. Catherine's, Ruyton, Kilvington and PLC. I think that's it. Whole place swarming with girls, girls and more girls. Boring sial. (Until now, I will defend to death that single-sex schools serve no better purpose to entire humanity 'cept maybe encouraging homosexuality. Co-ed all the way!!) ANYway, it sounded so strange and unfamiliar to me after years of athleticspeak involving vocabulary like Taman Sea, Assunta, DJ, DU, Sri Aman, Juliana Johan, Elizabeth Tee et cetera.

I feel like I'm living in a slideshow. Two slides, poles apart, one of KJ and the people in it, one of Olympic Park and its people in it. And there I am, standing there in the one thing that hasn't changed. My faithful Ascics spikes I got so long ago. (Though it's now missing a stud and the left sole is on the verge of coming off, much to my heartbreak. But they're nothing a little superglue won't mend, both the heart and the sole =)

Thus the day meandered, with me trying to stay on top and ready for my five events, and other times, watching the slides switch back and forth in my mind. Everywhere I turn, everything I see, a similar scene reenacts itself in my memory, mirrored here on foreign soil. I'm glad it didn't have to end so soon. I'm glad I'm still running. And I'm glad the story goes on.

[To Chun Yiao, though you don't read this, happy birthday! ^^ ]