Strapping Young Lads

Remember when I blogged about our last day of lessons in Shrewsbury School where everyone in the Upper Sixth went to lunch and even lessons in wacky school dress? Here's a photo from us walking to lunch. There's another one with everyone from Severn Hill. I need to get that from Geo.

Signing out

Over and out

Believing In A Two-Thirds Possibility

Assassins. Day Three.

One of the favourites for the tournament, Johnny Shaw, got knocked out by Severn Hill's very own George Rae. Of course it took quite meticulous planning.

The window at the end of the Upper Sixth corridor in the house had to be covered so that Johnny wouldn't be able to see through into the house. And in this case, we knew the best plan of attack would be defence. Battling it out in the outdoors would be suicidal against Johnny. He had full combats, and could sneak behind you like a mouse.

So Geo decided to wait around the corner at the end of the corridor, near his room. It was the best course of action to lure Johnny into Severn Hill. The motion sensor for the lights in the toilet had to be covered so that Geo could camp in there without giving out light. To bait Johnny into the house, Geo left a window open in the bike room. And he took the bait. All Geo had to do was wait.

He waited for about 2 and a half hours before Johnny came sneaking into the house. As Johnny was sneaking to Lowco's room opposite the toilet, Geo squirted his face.

Tom Allen got knocked out by Jimmy Taylor from Rigg's. Clive got knocked out by Welshie in a duel at the dump because they went over the time limit. Hairy has yet to fuel with Sam Tay from Ridgemount.

Away from Assassins, today has been quite relaxing. Because it's Field Day, the Upper Sixth has no lessons. Instead we have to work on our own.

Yoi.

I did fuck all today. I did clear up the things under my bed, but that's it. We had a buffet lunch at Pizza Hut. Of course being the greedy schoolboys we are, we piled our plates with a ridiculous amount of food. I had about 10 pieces of pizza, and 2 plates of pasta, which isn't even close to being the most. In Severn Hill, Pete ate 14 pieces. One guy from another house - Patrick Lapage, I think it was - ate 22 pieces by the time we left, and was still going for more.

Fuck damn it, I didn't feel well. My stomach wasn't happy at all. But it was a good laugh. Alan Lau had ice cream with Tabasco sauce. Of course that isn't too weird since Pill has Peri Peri sauce on her yoghurt. Haha.

Shit. Nelly is playing on my iTunes. Change it, quick.

Ah. Gorillaz. That's better.

~The digital won't let me go~

Which song is that from? Right answer gets a cookie. Quick. Offer ends after I finish this sentence. Oh, shit. You missed it. Oh well. Next time, then.

I'll miss this place. Five more weeks, and I'll have no more lessons here. It's been an amazing one and a half years here, in Shrewsbury School. I enjoyed myself here, and I'm still enjoying it. The ethos of the school fits me. It's such a carefree school, and yet it's academically excellent. Other things like sports and debating, we usually dominate. I guess it's my kind of school.

Maximum yield with least amount of effort.

The Salopian way, they say.

It's amazing how much it is a 'students' school. You get the real sense of community in the school, and with the other houses, there's that refreshing friendly rivalry in everything from football to debating to music to even organising house dances. The closure that things like doing house plays brings is amazing.

And even though it's quite an expensive school to get into, there's no snobbery at all. A lot of them are quite down to earth. You won't know by looking at a person that his father owns three mansions and is a millionaire. I guess a show of wealth is really just asking to be ridiculed. You'll get a lot of stick if you came in wearing a flashy suit and being driven in a Rolls Royce.

We're not posh. Rich, maybe, some of us. Not posh.

And we play harder than we work. House dances, Assassins, football. And oh, the occassional rule-breaking. None too serious. But we live a little.

We have massive food fights.

We have massive water fights.

We have massive snow fights.

There's even a WWBrook thing going on. A kind of wrestling tournament.

But like everything here, the controlled violence never goes over the top.

It's funny, one of Pill's teachers said that Shrewsbury students aren't really known to be perfect gentlemen. I guess it's partly true. We let ourselves go a lot more than other schools like ours. And we are who we are because of that.

I'll miss this school.

Signing out

Over and out

Assasinations From A Theatre: Part Two

So...

I'm annoyed. I got eliminated out of the most unfortunate circumstances. Unlucky. We were going for Josh Hurcomb from Ingram's this morning, which is Clive's target, and we saw this guy in a trench coat and white hoody coming out of the sides going to the Ashton Theatre. Pete said it was Josh, so going in as a team, I went to him first as a diversion, as a shield. Clive's cover, if you like. But it turned out to be Paddy, my target. So I got squirted out of Assassins after two and a half hours in the cold, windy outdoors.

But then later, we did get Josh Hurcomb. The back door was locked even though we knew the code, so we tried to look for another way in. It turned out the changing room door was open, so we got in through there. Creeping in quietly to Hurcomb's room, we went in slowly and switched on the lights, but he wasn't there in his bedsit. He changed places with his brother.

So of course that meant Josh is in his brother's bedsit. Now this was a real team effort. We found out where his bedsit was, and when we tried to open it, it was wedged in. It took quite a while and some effort before it opened. Josh was behind the door, panicking and shooting blindly. Geo kept the door open with his feet. Tom got in. I, again, acted as a shield. Then when Josh found out he wasn't squirting Clive, he popped his head through the door, and got squirted in the face by Clive. Mission accomplished.

Now I'm fucking tired. I only had four hours sleep last night, and I only have one PR today because they decided to move Thursday lessons to Wednesday.

Next round, probably tomorrow. I'm going to help out my housemates with this one. It was fun going out as a group. Team Hill, as Geo called it. Still four people from Severn Hill left in the top 32. That's a decent number of people.

Signing out

Over and out

Assassinations From A Theatre

Target:Paddy Thornycroft (Oldham's) Status:Lost

I've been eliminated out of Assassins. At around 7am this morning I was assassinated just at the entrance of the Ashton Theatre, under unfortunate circumstances. More of that soon.

Severn Hill went out as a team of 6: me, Geo,Clive, Hairy, Tom and Pete. Geo woke everyone up at 4.20am, and we were out of the house by 4.40am via the window in the changing room. It was cold. The wind was exceptionally strong.

The night before, I did not have much sleep. My make-shift door alarm kept going off because the wind kept pushing the door open. I found myself clutching the water gun when I woke up. It was hot inside my room, but I couldn't keep the windows open because there was a storm.

The game started at 5am. We were outside Rigg's, waiting for Josh Williams, Pete's target. It took around 15 minutes before we saw them come out of the house. Chaos ensued. Using a clever diversion, Josh got Pete.

We met and joined forces with other houses at stages, but ultimately we were our own team. Geo got Georgei in School House while he was sleeping. Hairy got Ed Shone in Churchill's. Fudge got Santi in School House. Clive got Josh Hurcomb in Ingram's.

As predicted, breakfast was an absolute ruckus. Shaw camped on the roof of KH with a sleeping bag for two hours. There were several duels going in KH at the same time. It was possibly the wettest breakfast in a long time.

There are still some duels going on. This will last till 5pm. This is Assassins.

Signing out

Over and out

Assassinations From A Cup

Target: Rich Wang (Churchill's) Status:Eliminated
Time of Death:Between 0730-0800, 11/03/08 Weapon Used:Orange Juice

The Assassins tournament has started. It's that season again, when all the upper sixth get silly by lobbing glasses of water and shooting with water guns all around the school site.

I was drawn against Rich Wang in the first round. Not that I had any idea who it was when I found out. But my housemates pointed out who it was, and I was already trying to figure out a plan to assassinate him, before he assassinates me.

The first round started at 0000 hours, and will end at 1500 hours today. I have eliminated my target. So has a few people. Some even stayed up till the early hours of the morning to sneak in and assassinate their own targets. The people who stayed in their rooms barricaded their doors, or exchanged beds with other people. I kept a water gun on the side of the bed, and installed a make-shift alarm on my door that consisted of simply a chair, a rubbish bin, and a trolley bag.

The night went well. No attacks. I slept well. But Sam Waterworth who's a housemate of mine, got assassinated by Welshie, a guy from Ridgemount. This morning in breakfast, Peter Stewart assassinated Nick Carling in KH with a bottle of water.

Mine was next. I was looking at Churchill's way all the way through breakfast. Rich Wang had not come yet. But when he came, he saw me too. He had a bottle of water in his hand. So did I. But it was a delicate situation. Going in for the kill would almost be suicide. It's easier when you're chased but you're aware of it. So it had to be timed perfectly. And I timed mine brilliantly.

There were two tables inbetween us. They were empty. But then some Oldham's lower sixths filled in one of the tables, and he lost concentration for a bit. In that twenty-second window, I sneaked towards him, with a glass of orange juice in my left hand and a bottle of water in my right. The plan of attack was to use the orange juice as a diversion, as a fake attack, and then when he is trying to avoid the orange juice I would squirt him with the bottle of water.

But he didn't notice I was coming at all. So it was unnecessary of me to use the orange juice. But I forgot. So I spilled the orange juice all over his jacket, and walked back to the table. Mission accomplished. He was not happy.

Next round starts in a few hours. Most probably some time tomorrow.

Signing out

Over and out

License To Chill

Alright. First lesson. Teacher didn't turn up. So here I am in ITBs online. Not really sure what to say.

Had our first medium-sized food fight yesterday. I didn't get involved though. It was between 4-5 people, throwing bread rolls to each other during tea. Quite funny. They were running around KH, and as if in an action movie started sliding around the floors Matrix-style. There were some pretty good long distance throws from our side to the dayboys. At 50 metres it's a good job the guy actually hit the table or just barely missed the other guy. Ah, food fights.

Mayhem ensued.

Life goes on, won't it?

I need my pill.

Signing out

Over and out

Zero To Twenty With An Overnight Conversion

I don't know why I get depressed over the fact that I've turned twenty. Maybe it's because in school I'm two or three years older than everyone else. Maybe it's the fact that by definition, I'm not a teenager anymore. Or maybe I think suddenly being in the twenties makes me think that I might just have to grow up a little bit and make more effort for the future.

Whatever it is, I still had a great 20th birthday.

It was a surprise as well, because as much as they love me (hahaha), I don't think they'd travel all the way to isolated Shrewsbury just so they could celebrate it. But they did. Thanks Farah, Adeylah, Desiree, Kimy, Adi and Ajeeratul for coming. And also for the Shrewsbury guys, Kamillin, Adry, Mubin, Wafi and Chiao, for well, being in Shrewsbury anyways. Hahahaha.

If you wanna see the photos from that day, click here for my album, and click here for Farah's.

I thought that Saturday (we celebrated a day late) would have no more surprises after the Headington girls and the Oswestry girls left, but I was wrong.



I had joked with my housemates (Geo specifically) that for my birthday he was supposed to get me 52 virgins, one for every week of the year. This is kinda an ongoing joke, this whole virgin thing. Don't worry about the details. Hahaha.

Anyways, what they did was, right after we left my room to go to Ridgemount, Geo covered everything in my room with as many red bedsheets as he could find, and he also covered my light with the bedsheet, so it had this really creepy red light effect. In the photo, you can't see it because I took it off, and I had cleared some of it up. And what else, he spent a good half an hour sticking 52 photocopied photos of Sir Richard Branson, the CEO of Virgin. Quite clever, I think. Hahahaha.



Being used to this kind of stuff from Geo, the first thing I said was 'that's actually really cool.' I wasn't angry or anything. I guess it was too good a day for me to actually mind a little prank. Then again, it's a chance for me to totally get back at him.

Oh, well. Surprises, surprises. You could never get enough of them.

Signing out

Over and out

Now Is The Time For A Resolving Revolution

Right now life as an upper-sixth at Severn Hill has been a crazy one. I guess the more we grow up, the more childish we want to become. We've been playing pranks and doing crazy stuff since the start of term. Of course the occasional throw-abouts after lunch are still there. That's a given. It's things like posting up directions to Lowcock's room on walls with sigs such as Cock-a-doodle-do, or Cock-a-shock, or sticking a piece of plasticine shaped like a part of the male anatomy on his door besides a sign that says Low, that makes all the hard work in lessons bearable. I tidied up my room yesterday, and Geo put up a sign on the back of my door that said 'Your room is too tidy. Sort it out. Nob.' Quite funny, I thought.

I stayed up for Sahur at around midnight last night, and woke up Mubin. We only had instant noodles cooked with a microwave oven, because we have no stove in the kitchen. And because of fasting, I didn't go to breakfast this morning, so I slept till 8.30, knowing full well I had a PR first lesson.

I feel like I really belong in Shrewsbury now. Most of the upper-sixth know me (even though admittedly I still struggle with their names). I don't have problems finding a table of people to sit with during lunch or tea like I did the first month last year. And other small things like that make for a very comfortable second year - so far.

I wanted to post a longer entry, but time doesn't permit. Chemistry in one minute.

Signing out

Over and out

A Mention For An Amendment Decades In The Making

For the second day in a row, I'm having breakfast at De Royalle Cafe, here in Bandar, with really not much to do than go online, check Facebook & Multiply, and recently, starting to read blogs from Brunei's very own Blogging Nation. But in all honesty, going online isn't always unproductive. Just by a few random clicks and and BAM! You find out something you didn't even imagine could even be true, likely or possible. That's literally how I ended up being a vegan. A few random clicks and there I was, pondering over the ethics of animal exploitation.

[skip this part if you get bored easily. Hahaha]

With creativity though, there's a lot you can do online. There's this Wikipedia game that people play, where you have to link two seemingly unrelated topics. Here's how it works:

Choose two totally unrelated topics. Eg. Mitsubishi, and Anne Frank

Then choose a starting point. I'll choose Anne Frank as an example. Enter it on Wikipedia

Then read the article, looking for any links for articles that might get you one step closer to achieving your final goal, Mitsubishi, in as few clicks as possible.

I've gone from Anne Frank to Germany to Japan to Mitsubishi. Accomplished!

Hahahahaa.

I know what you're thinking. This is the saddest game I've ever heard. And yes, it kinda is. But it's still good fun.

[Yes, it's safe now]

Anyways, so I'm bored here. I'm not gonna say I'm bored out of my mind because the truth is, I'm not THAT bored. Facebook is a good companion. BBC News is on the telly, so you can't really say I'm not learning anything while I'm sitting here sipping my Caramel Latte in De Royalle.

The rain is soothing. It's a soft drizzling delicate shower. And unlike when it rains in the UK, the sky is still bright. Makes for a good walk under the rain. Although since I've got lunch later at somewhere else, I don't plan to get wet here and now. And since I've been spending much more time in Bandar (no, don't call me a Poklen. Hahaha), I've noticed there are loads of tourists around. And they all look the same, with their khaki shorts and oversized camping bags. And oh, a big-ass camera hanging around their neck. I guess it's some kind of tourist uniform rule that all European/American tourists wear when going to a tropical country. Hoho. Ha. A lot of them hang out at De Royalle too, apparently.

By the way, there's an Education UK / British Council exhibit going on tomorrow at Rizqun, the Mall. Fourth floor, Sutra Hall. I'll be working there as a promoter for the feedback survey. Sounds fun. Ish. The task, though simple, seems a bit daunting. They're aiming for 200-250 people to answer the survey, and I'm supposed to get those 250 people. A bit of a struggle, I predict. It'll be from 1pm to 6pm, if anyone's wondering. Be there. I'll be at the entrance. And do come in hundreds. Makes my job easier to get those survey forms done. Hahaha.

I guess my holiday isn't as unproductive as it seems at first glance. So far I've been to two pre-departure briefing for new scholars, and is expecting another one this Friday. I've looked after my grandfather in the hospital, essentially learning how to take care of the elderly. I've looked at universities, courses and grade requirements. I guess this amounts to being (somewhat) relatively productive, considering I've had three attachment applications unreplied and ignored.

And oh, being in UK for eight months, you gain new insight to how Brunei is, against how it seems to be. I don't intend to elaborate on that point, because it could get too tedious.

Signing out

Over and out

Cars & Chlorine

It turns out I have 2 chemistry courseworks and 1 Physics coursework to do in two weeks, post-exams, and I'm not happy at all. At least today is my last exam, and that's the ever delightful C3. I'm not looking forward to it at all. Oh, well, retaking won't be so bad, I guess.

By the way, Sam & Geo did a prank on Jack Rose's car this morning during their double PR. They wrapped his car in clear plastic, which looks so funny up close. I can't believe they did it while it was raining, for a full ten minutes.






Hahaha.

Tell you what though. One thing I'm really looking forward to is the fact that I'll be on my flight home exactly two weeks from tomorrow. I can't wait :D

Signing out

Over and out

Volent & Virulent

I want to think I'm right. But I know I can't make any assumptions. All the assumptions I've made before had been wrong, and had been wrong so badly. So no, I'll try and restrain myself from making this one.

But I so want it to be true, it's unbelievable. It's almost unhealthy. It's really made my day today, even though I can never be sure if it's really true. I had a good time at brunch. I had a good time playing football on the new seven grand football turf for our house. It's so slippery we had to resort to psycho football, some branch of football that might have originated from what the gladiators of Rome used to play in their backyard.

Facts, fiction, truths, lies. And there's assumptions.

I can't stop thinking about it. It's making me unbelievably positive, it's almost certain it's going to break my heart. I can't let my hopes up. It's emotional suicide.

I'm confused.

Signing out

Over and out

Rooms & Revision

I'm here in my friend, Geo's room, while he's off doing the house duty thing, of which the experience is such a nightmare. Trying to get the third-formers to bed isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world.

Anyway, for people who has seen me play basketball, they'll know I'm well below average. So me getting into the house team sounds improbable, right? Turns out we're so short of basketball players, they needed me to play. Jeez. Apparently basketball isn't high on the school sports priority list.

With me in the team, you'd normally expect the team to be naturally crap. Well, crap enough to let me in the starting line-up, that is. But it turns out the other house teams are crappier than us. Actually the team consisted of two extremely good chinese players with a few other people to make up the numbers.

But hey, surprise, we got second place. Hahahahahahahahaha.

I'll leave that statement as it is, so you can ponder over how we managed it :P

Signing out

Over and out

Smashing Plates, Running Boys

We had a massive foodfight in KH yesterday. And by massive, I mean huge. The whole school got involved. Probably about 400 people.. It started out slowly. Some people were throwing bread rolls and plums to the dayboys, who were 50 metres away. They responded, and responded big. Things took up pace, and as soon as I picked up and threw an orange, there was this 10 seconds of chaos when everything was just a massive blur and things got really nasty.

You could hear plates smashing and see bowls flying. For a few seconds I was a bit scared. Really. It was chaotic. Some people said they saw me throwing a (glass) bowl of rice, which I'm sure I didn't. If that rumour gets around, I'm gonna get into trouble.

After that ten seconds, everyone just bailed amidst the flying plums and oranges. It took us longer to run out the door because we we furthest away from any exits. So I literally had to barge my way out. I was stepping on foodstuff and trays along the way.

Back at the house, our housemaster told us to go back to KH and help clean up. Which we did. But we got back to the house pretty soon because there was enough people there.

Back at the house, again, our housemaster calld in all the sixth formers for an emergency meeting. He was asking people who were involved to own up and admit. I did. Geo did. And Sam did.

He asked us why we did it. All I said was "I was in the same situation as Sam. I got hit by something, I didn't even know what it was, and I just picked up an orange and threw in the direction where it came from."

We got gated for the night. Not bad, I guess. I didn't really have any plans that night. Wanted to go to the Churchill's house play, but can always go tonight. Sam was pissed off with the housemaster. He was saying "Sir, I don't understand this. You want to encourage honesty by punishing us? I don't get it." He argued a little more with the housemaster.

I feel sorry for him. Everyone who was involved should've felt obligated to own up and admit. I was imvolved only partly, but I owned up. Sam only threw a bread roll. He owned up. There were people who did much worse who didn't own up..

This picture is from when were cleaning KH..



Signing out

Over and out

Snowing Plains, Throwing Hands

If you’ve been regularly reading my blog, you’ll know how much Salopians like to throw things at each other, be it food, sports equipment or insults. Come winter, and snow comes into that list. Yes, lads. Snowball fight season is in.

This is actually my first actual real-life encounter with snow, and it isn’t quite what I expected. I hadn’t expected, for instance, a snowball to have almost the same texture as cotton candy, only bitterly cold. It’s been snowing quite heavily here. So much so that the school’s cancelled Field Day, of which usually I have a day off. Now we have to go to lessons. Bloody ridiculous. You can’t go to Arts or Astronomy because there’s 15cm of snow covering the 200m journey, but you’ve got to go to lessons, which is probably more burdening because it’s 1km away from our house.

Actually, under school rules, snowfights are banned. But as they say, some rules are made to be broken.

Everytime we were outside, even inbetween classes, people were throwing snowball at each other. Even five minutes intervals between lessons were used to accommodate massive ten-a-side throw-a-thons. My hands go numb everytime I make a snowball. It’s good that Geo offered me his right glove because he’s left-handed. Amusingly, he took a food tray from KH, planning to use it as a sled later to slide down the hills that are abundant in school.

Of course, later, after I had taken a food tray myself, me and Geo went to the back of Main School Building, where the boat house was, just beside the river. We duly sailed down the slope using the 12x24cm trays, as chaos ensued. Then we used proper sleds, from Paddy, and another sixth form guy whose name I don’t know. That was serious fun. I snapped my middle finger after me and Paddy went side by side and my hands got caught under his sled. Of course, despite the injury, I came back up for more. We tried it on our backs, on our chests and on our butts. Geo and Paddy even tried it snowboard-style. Once I had to stop myself quite quickly because I wasn’t about to stop and I was heading straight into the river. Not in the slightest desire for hypothermia, I used the rubber studs of my turf shoes to avoid an ice cube sculpture of me floating on the River Severn.

At 2pm, Geo had to go to Art, and Paddy had to go back to his house. So I went to the area between Ridgemount and Science building, where a massive snow-fight was in progress. Ridgemount had one of those catapult things to launch massive snowballs. That was quite cool. The power on it, was just incredible. After that, the upper sixth was making a hugely humongous snowball, of which was later to be made into a snowman. But then some lower sixth guys decided to spoil the party and crash it with a big field-smashing thingy. What remains of the snowman, became a much larger snowball, and was rolled into KH. This you gotta see. It’s in my videos page, either already uploaded, or to be uploaded soon.

If it sounds like the school is a really big bundle of fun, that’s cause it is. For Physics today, we launched a rocket 500m into the air, just for the sake of it. For Mechanics, we watched an episode of Friends. For Chemistry, urm, we marked our past papers. For Pure Maths, urm, even worst, we did work on Differentiation. Okay, so it’s not completely fun and no work. But then with this kind of relaxed attitude, you’ve gotta wonder how the school earned its high reputation in academic and sporting excellence.

Life goes on as usual in Shrewsbury School. Banter, throwing stuff, that aloofness in the air. Having fun, acting insane. That sense of Salopian motto, ‘maximum yield with minimum effort.’ A motto I’ve been using a lot over the years. I think I’m suited to this school.

Signing out

Over and out

Throwing Hands, Hurting Eyes

Tea today managed to develop into a massive six-man bread-fight as each one of us started throwing pastry to each other. It started on the table, when Clive I think it was, dropped a pea into Lowco’s hot chocolate, and everyone just chucked peas to each other. Geo got hit in the eye by Paddy, Sam’s hot chocolate also got pea thrown in, along with Geo’s squash. And by the time we left the table, there were peas all over the floor.

As we were leaving, everyone started to take a piece of bread with them outside. As soon as everyone got outside, Geo with all his effort threw a big piece of carbohydrate to Lowco. I didn’t see which part of him it hit, but I wasn’t gonna stay and find out, because Geo started running and Lowco threw it back at him. Naturally, everyone joined in. Bread was flying all over the place, and I managed to hit Sam in the stomach and Clive in the face quite sweetly.

Enough of unsupervised violence. I need to go to the toilet for a while.

[long pause]

[flush heard]

[footsteps]

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah. Unsupervised violence.

Speaking of that, we’re gonna have our Mock European Conference dinner tomorrow, which I think, should be good. Or at least fun. Mock European Conference is something like BGIC, I guess. That’s the closest think I can think of. Maybe Model United Nations too. Our house seems to be taking this seriously. Well, at least Peter Stewart and Michael Webb are. They’re doing all the work, and I guess will do most of the talking on the actual day, which is on Friday. Expecting myself to fall asleep and have the audacity to join in the celebrations when our house wins the whole thing.

I have a tutorial tonight. I’m really not bothered. But then, I haven’t had a tutorial for a long time. Well, the last time I had one we went and watched The Last King Of Scotland at the cinema, so that doesn’t really count. Well, in Shrewsbury, it kinda does. I mean, a drink in the pub also counts as a tutorial. A meal at a restaurant is also a tutorial. It seems like you can do anything during tutorials with your tutor, except to be tutored

Signing out

Over and out